Anyone here an expert on obscure antique Swiss watch brands?

Sorry dude - that's a 50 cent G-Unit watch circa 2004.

 

e-bay is where I started learning about watch dealers and pocketwatches. Check the antiques. There is some interesting stuff in there. And as you pke around their websites you'll learn a lot fast.

 

I am a watch fanatic, I have a couple I really like.

That is a nice choice SJC......not sure I have ever seen one like it though.

DD

 

what makes you think its a swiss watch? what does the case back have on it?

 

If the numbers glow without being charged in the sun try a geiger counter on it.

 

Americium-243 you can make a nice cloud chamber with that stuff.

 

apparently the watch has "G-Shock"

 

I just spent a stupid amount of time researching antique watches. My best bet is that it's a generic brand. Note the similarity to this no-name swiss watch Apparently many smaller brands simply disapeared after the war.

I spent quite a bit of that time looking at the many "G" brands of Swiss watch. My thought was that the G with the bent line across it was specifically destinctive enough to aid in ID. Unfortunately, I could only determine a likeness to the font in Girard-Perregaux and Gucci watches of the 1930's & 1940's.

I definately think your timeframe is correct, however. Just about every watch after WWII had the lettering done in a more cursive script style.

If there is a known brand in there somewhere, you should apparently have a jewler take off the back cover. Most of the watches are engraved with a maker's mark inside, and at worst you could have them see if the mechanisms are recognizable.

 

Haha almost got me but you got to do a better photoshopping job than that.

 

it looks like a military watch (or styled)

 

Where did you get it? If I may ask.

 

A friend of mine who is a watch expert says he believes it is a Girard and probably pretty valuable.

 

LOL@ KingCheetah!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINT-GIRARD-PER...ryZ31387QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

 

Oh no. I just had a flashback to Pulp Fiction.

Wonder where that watch has been to save it from the Nazis.

 

Thanks for giving me something to totally geek-out about the last two days. I love doing interesting web research like this, at least in spurts.

It's definately either an authentic or knockoff of a German WWII Army watch. Here, for example is a Minerva that looks pretty damn close:




My first instinct is post-war knockoff, as all of the Army Service watches I've seen have a serial number on the back and most have the letters "DH" stamped. Additionally, the I have yet to see an internal movement that didn't at least have a makers stamp. You can kind of see the serial number and D & H on the Minerva here:



Here's the page I got those photos from

I say perhaps, because here is a partial listing of companies that made these watches for the army. BTW, if it is authentic, it IS painted with radium.

• Acacia
• Alpina
• Arcadia
• Arsa
• Bielco
• Bulla
• Buren
• BWC
• Choisi
• Civitas
• Cronos
• Doxa
• Emco
• ERA
• Ercules
• Felco
• Flora
• Freco
• Gala
• Glycine
• Grana
• Gustonia
• Hado
• Helios
• Helma
• Helvetia
• Leonidas
• Longines
• Mimo
• Minerva
• Moeris
• Monitor
• Mulco
• Nisus
• Onda
• OPE
• Para
• Phenix
• Pierpont
• Pronto
• Record
• Recta
• Revue
• Siegerin
• Silvana
• Stabila
• Stowa
• Syntakt
• Thiel
• Titus
• Tritona
• Wagner
• Zenith
• Zentra

I have several links for you, including a BBS where they'd be able to judge authenticity in a second, but quite frankly I'm burned out from all the crap I just did. I'll post some links later.

Some of them, however, contain pictures with Nazi images. None are by any means neo-Nazi sites, but IIRC there's some issues in France & Germany that make such images, even on a monitor, a touchy subject. Let me know if I need to censor.