Passions Watch Exchange

About This Watch

Vintage. No boxes or papers & a Passions box will be given.

It gives us immense pleasure to offer you this very fine Empire style, tripled hinged open face pocket watch signed by Vacheron & Constantin Genève-Suisse. The condition is simply superb throughout which is evidenced by the crisp quality of the handcrafted, guilloché back cover as seen on the last image in our thumbnails. The hinges and bow-ring are all tight so the watch stands with the covers extended wide open. The solid 14ct rose gold was made by American Keystone case company which is common for export watches due to America's Tariff. The case is of empire style with extended crown stem & an Omega logo bow-ring. This watch has a rather peculiar bezel that's 5mm wide including the concave flange so the watch appears to be larger than usual & weighs about 65 grams.

The kiln baked white enamel dial is in perfect condition with black Arabic numerals, railway track minute divisions & a small seconds. This is matched by a pair of Moon style blued steel hands.

Upon opening the back cover, you'll be greeted by a mirror polished cuvette (dust-cover) & the entire case is free from any personalisation. The fine coin-edge ridges are sharp and crisp which offers a good grip over the watch. Further opening of the cuvette reveals a very high quality movement with three finger bridges that's jewelled to the center with an impressive 21 jewels count & adjusted to 8 positions which is almost chronometer grade. The bridges are bevelled and polished. It shows the wolf's teeth winding gears clearly and bi-metallic balance with gold screws while a fine swan-neck regulator tops it off. Most watch makers of this era offers less than 15 jewels so our watch here has 6 more to reduce friction and improve time-keeping & 21 jewels movement were not common until 4 decades later.

This watch was made for and engraved on the movement, "F.P.D. Jennings, Albany N.Y." presumably a jeweler based in Albany, New York as it was common for Swiss watchmakers to sign on their movements for their clients back then including Patek Philippe.

Vacheron & Constantin is the oldest watch manufacturer in continuing production for the last four centuries centuries starting in 1755 and our watch here dates back to 1916 so this watch was made during WWI period and saw it all including the Great Depression and the devastating WW2. It is more than a Century old now and was made by the Geneva factory for the American market but saw very little use over the past hundred year in view of it's present condition. Takes about 11 winds to full. Overall, an impressive quality VC watch with a beautiful case in great condition throughout.