Paul Vallette Lapel Watch

[grayagent]

I have a Paul Vallette Lapel Watch. The back of the watch is clear and I can read Empire Watch Co Geneva on it and 15 jewel unadjusted.

It is engraved To Bill Truog from Samual Goldwyn (this is Sam Goldwyn from MGM) Bill was my wifes Grandfather worked for MGM. It does work and is gold.

I read that Paul Vallette is a brand name that was used by Ed Heuer & Company (Now Tag Heuer) in the early 20th century but that is all I can find.

If anyone could give me any information I would appreciate it. Value?

Thanks

[JohnF]

Hi -

Very interesting!

First, welcome to the forum and WUS! I hope that your stay here is enjoyable... :-)

Valuing is difficult, please read the sticky post at the top of the forum from Ray McDonald, he puts it better than anyone can: the value of a watch is monetarily what a buyer is willing to pay for it.

Yours, have connection with Goldwyn, would have more interest for someone who collects stuff connected with him (and given what I've seen on the Internet, wouldn't surprise me that there is someone out there who does that...), rather than for the watch as such.

This kind of watch, a lapel watch, was probably worn with a suit, with the watch carried in the outside breast pocket and secured through the lapel button hole. It's unusual, to say the least, but not unknown.

During the transition from pocket watch to wrist watch, there was for a while a fashion of wearing watches like this, but it didn't catch on as it did require a smaller size watch and at the end of the day wasn't much different than carrying a pocket watch, which would usually keep better time (back then).

Your pictures don't show much detail, but the movement looks good: the stripes on the movement come from what are called geneva stripes, a way of polishing the metal so as to reflect the light differently. 15 jewels would be your basic full movement for that period (ok, 17 jewels would be fully jeweled, but 15 covers it very well as well...), so you are looking at a high-quality watch movement.

It is important not to run the watch without it being serviced if you do not know the servicing history. Any good, qualified watchmaker will be happy to work on the watch to disassemble, clean, re-oil and reassemble and adjust the watch so it will work properly. Won't be cheap, but will ensure a very long life...

JohnF

[Ray MacDonald]

An interesting piece and thanks for posting. As John said, it's hard for us to give a value for any watch as we can't judge condition over the Internet - and that's the determining factor in every case.
I should think your watch is more of interest to a movie buff than a watch collector because you know its provenance. In any case it is a family heirloom and always will be worth more to you than anyone else.
It is true that TAG Heuer did introduce the Paul Vallette brand in the 1920s.
I am having a bit of a problem dating your piece because a 15 jewel movement says 1930s to me whereas unadjusted usually denotes late 1940s when the Swiss lied about adjusting watches to get around American tariff regulations. Probably your wife would know when her grandfather actually got the watch from Sam Goldwyn.