Help With ID

[fordmech00]

So I inhearited this pocket watch from my mother. It was eather my Grandfather's or great Grandfathers. The watch case pins are broken and it needs a good cleaning, but other than that I know nothing. I have tried to look for a match of any of the names on the back with no results. Any info as far as manufacture, date, or general would be helpful.

[Hartmut Richter]

Welcome to Watchuseek. That looks like a nice watch. Old, probably 130-150 years or so. That style of bridge layout is colloquially known as the "Le Locle finger bridge" arrangement. The makers were obviously Reynier and Roulet, located in Le Locle (now best known for being the home of Zenith, also Tissot, Ulysse Nardin). It is a 13 jewel lever movement which was rare at a time when cylindre and "Roskopf" pin pallet movements dominated the market. The dial is very nice indeed.....

Hartmut Richter

[fordmech00]

Thank you for your response. Is there anyway to run the serial number to find out more info?

[AbslomRob]

The seiral number is probably specific to "Reynier and Roulet" (is there a number on the inside of the caseback? Is it the same number?), and would tell you very little about the watch itself. Watches like this would have been worked on by numerous individuals, and really can't be "traced" to a single source. At best, "Reynier and Roulet" was the finisher; at worst, they simple cased up movements purchased from whatever source was available to them. Either way, the serial number only existed so that they could track the watch; when they went out of business (the fate of 99% of all swiss watch makers over the past couple of centuries), their records were probably thrown out. And of the 13,000+ watches they "produced" (assuming they actually used serial progression and not some more complicated numbering system), you'd probably be lucky if there were 1000 left intact around the world.