I don't make any attempt here to cover manufacturer's trademarks. There is a lot of information on this page and I know it can be difficult to take it all in if you are struggling to understand the hallmarks in your watch case please ask me for help via my contact me page. Different date letter punch shapes were often used on items made from gold, and after 1907 sometimes on imported gold and silver items. Make sure that you get a 2014 or later edition, because only those contain correct information about British import hallmarks applied to watch cases.īe aware that most published tables of British hallmark date letters are only for British made sterling silver items. If you want to get a book about British hallmarking, Bradbury's Book of Hallmarks published by the Sheffield Assay Office is a long established reference. You are then directed to another page with more detailed information.

This page helps you to make a start on reading the hallmarks in your watch case by identifying in which country it was assayed and hallmarked. In addition to the fineness, hallmarks show where and when an item was hallmarked, and under whose name it was submitted. The fineness of the metal is tested to make sure it meets legal requirements, and then it can be stamped with a hallmark. Other assay offices were later opened in centres where goldsmiths worked. Precious metal (gold and silver, and more recently platinum) objects have by law been tested and marked in England since at least the year 1300, and since 1478 had to be taken to Goldsmiths' Hall in London, from which the term “hallmarking” originate. Not all marks on watch cases are hallmarks! For instance, a mark could be a be manufacturer's trademark, and there are is no such thing as an American hallmark. A hallmark is a legally mandated mark applied by an independent testing authority that shows the fineness of precious metal gold, silver or platinum. This page is principally about hallmarking. Bocks and Rams: IWC and Stauffer Trademarks.New product: Leather and Sterling Alberts.Savonnette and Lépine Watches and Cases.Converted Wristwatches - Transitional? No.Bears Galore! Three Bears and 0♹35 Silver.Borgel 2: Taubert & Fils and Taubert Frères.Borgel 1: François Borgel and Louisa Borgel.Conflicting information exists about the fate of the Russian enterprise, but Henry Fried, a horology professor at New York University, reported seeing Dueber-Hampden machinery being used in China in 1986.Straps for Vintage Fixed Wire Lug Trench Watches or Officer's Wristwatches Nearly 30 boxcars of machinery left Canton in 1931 with 21 former Dueber Hampden employees who contracted for one year to teach the Russians the craft of watchmaking. Vrettman went bankrupt in 1927 and sold all of the company's equipment to Amtorg, a Russian purchasing company. Dueber sold the company to Walter Vrettman in 1925. Hampden produced some very fine quality watches, and introduced the first 16 size, 23 jewel movement made in America.ĭueber controlled all aspects of the company from manufacturing to sales. By 1890, the company was producing 600 watches a day, had 1000 employees, and possessed net assets of $2,600,000. in Springfield in 1888, then moved it to Canton. In order to remain in business, Dueber bought the Hampden Watch Co. At about this time an anti-trust law was passed and the watch case manufacturers formed a boycott against Dueber.

Dueber had been manufacturing watch cases since 1864 and bought controlling interest in a case company in about 1886.

Dueber coin pocket watch serial number