A beautiful early half hunter wristwatch with blue enameled cover, extended crown and a unique religious engraving on the back. This timepiece oozes history, produced by the famed Omega Watch Co of Switzerland. Most likely a small pocket watch at birth, it was probably converted to a wristwatch in the early 1900's to either be used during the war or simply to keep up with the days latest fashion of wearing a watch on your wrist. A character timepiece with a tangible sense of a foregone era.
Style: Early Wristwatch, Military
Circa: 1900's
Case: Beautiful and rare solid sterling silver 5-piece triple hinged case with half-hunter spring loaded top, deep blue enameled roman numerals and extended onion style crown to make for easy winding. Measures a large 35.5mm in diameter with 12mm wire lug spacing. The cover enamel is near perfect with no chip loss and a lovely cobalt blue color. When the onion crown is depressed the top springs open to reveal the inner bezel, thin glass crystal and original dial. Inside the top is fully hallmarked with a serial number and 0.935 which we also find inside the back along with the Omega logo signature. It is quite possible this was a small pocket watch converted around the first world war into a wristwatch in order to use during the war. The other character feature is the simple cross engraved on the back adding a wonderful sense of history and personality to the timepiece, hence the title "Trench Art".
Dial: Original unsigned enamel dial with roman numerals, outer minute track and small seconds at 6:00. Original blue steel double Pear hunter style hands are also present and in excellent condition. A couple slight hairlines can bee seen, but still in overall wonderful condition.
Movement: High quality Omega manual wind movement with brass colored plates and engraving on the balance bridge. Bi-metalic cut balance wheel with Breguet over-coil blue steel hairspring. 15 jewels and stamped with the Omega logo under the dial. Fully serviced by our watchmaker and in excellent overall condition working well although not recommended for everyday use.
Strap: Beautiful high quality vintage "trench watch" style genuine leather strap with 12mm central band and wide fancy shape backing provided by David Boettcher at www.vintagewatchstraps.com. These are the best you can buy for this style of wire lug wristwatch and a joy to wear.