Newb with a family pocket watch

[justinw3053]

Can any one give me any info on this watch, it was given to me by my father. He isn't around to ask about it, so I figured maybe someone on here could give some insight.

The only marks on this piece are 17 seventeen jewel unadjusted swis made on the big gear and Arnex on the smaller gear(sorry for the very general terms), other than the 17 jewel and arnex there is only a very small stamped 497 viewed from the back. Unfortunately I could not get a picture of the 497.

The pictures of it can be seem here: http://picasaweb.google.com/cloverfun/PocketWatch

Thank you for any info you can give.

Justin

[Ray MacDonald]

It's a fairly recent watch I'd say, not much earlier than the 1970s. The really antique skeleton watches are quite hard to find nowadays. The watch has Incabloc shock protection which guarantees it's a modern design.
I think Arnex is a brand sold by Lucien Piccard.
Thanks for posting.

[justinw3053]

Cool, thanks for the quick reply.

[Chascomm]

Can any one give me any info on this watch, it was given to me by my father. He isn't around to ask about it, so I figured maybe someone on here could give some insight.

The only marks on this piece are 17 seventeen jewel unadjusted swis made on the big gear and Arnex on the smaller gear(sorry for the very general terms), other than the 17 jewel and arnex there is only a very small stamped 497 viewed from the back. Unfortunately I could not get a picture of the 497.

The pictures of it can be seem here: http://picasaweb.google.com/cloverfun/PocketWatch

Thank you for any info you can give.

JustinFrom what I can make out from the photos, the movement could be a Unitas, but the skeletonization is nothing like the current cut. On the basis of that slim evidence, you could narrow down the age to sometime between when they started putting shockproofing on the big Unitas calibre, and whenever they introduced the style of skeletonization currently offered by ETA.

Roland? Harmut? Help!

[Hartmut Richter]

It is very difficult to give definite info since the shots with the entire movement are dial-side and almost every movement just has one big base plate there (!), whereas the back-side shots only show half the movement. The movement obviously has a small second at 6:00 with crown at 12:00 so it's a lepine calibre. That rules out the Peseux 7001 and the Unitas 6498 and all those manual ETA things sometimes found in modern pocket watches with central seconds hand (e.g. ETA 2801, which is the basic version of the ETA 2824). The two most common lepine calibres are the ETA 6497 and the Molniya 3602/3. Of those, the latter is out since even what little one can see of the back plates and bridges doesn't fit. The Unitas 6497 also doesn't quite match, unless they not only put holes into the wheelhouse bridge (which they haven't done anyway, in fact) but also filed away a little from the edge. Still, that's the most likely option on the basis of the evidence so far so I'd have to go with Chascomm. A full picture of th back setup would help, though.

Hartmut Richter