Gold watch - came with chain in other thread

[Radon]

Here are photos of the watch that I found with a chain in my Mom's house while cleaning it out. It works, and it has a chime in it. The inscription says Ancrel spiral Breguet 30 Rubis N6069. I googled breguet watches and their site says that serial number is too high to be an actual Breguet watch, and the wording is incorrect. The picture of the innards shows a speed adjustment lever with French (I think) words for faster and slower. You can also see the hammers for the chime on the right side from about 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock. The picture of the inside of the cover has a mark "LBF" and another small stamp mark near it. It's got the number 4939I and also K18, and the serial number 6069 again. There are some hand scribed marks on the inside of the case as well, but they are difficult to see with the reflections on the shiny gold.

Any thoughts on the manufacturer and age of the watch would be appreciated, as well as the value. My sister took it to 3 jewelers to get their impressions on it. One said it isn't worth that much, and that she should just keep it in the family, but he would give her $50 for it. Another said he thought it would be around $500. The last one showed it to some watch enthusiasts and said that he was given an offer of $1700. So, word to the wise, be careful of expert's opinions and offers.

Many thanks to you all on this site, the amount of available information is amazing!

 

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[ARC]

Like woah... shes a be-u-t'e !

Stellar condition... super cool and definitely fitting of your fob.

 

[Tony in SC]

Super nice watch, but also very strange! It appears to be a watch made by the Non-Magnetic Watch Co. Geneva. I have a bad picture of that same movement with No. 6264. All I can find is that it became The Non-Magnetic Watch Co. America around 1895? Around that time they made watches for other makers. There was also a Ball watch with that same movement.

 

[Red-Coat]

It’s a lovely watch.

You’re correct that any pocket watch with an individual serial number higher than 5500 is not a genuine Breguet watch. Also note that they never made any watch bearing the words “Spiral Breguet”.

I don’t know if the watch is by the Non-Magnetic Watch Company or not but the Non-Magnetic Watch Co. in the US announced in February 1888 that it had purchased the American business of the Geneva Non-Magnetic Watch Co. together with the US rights to their patents. The Swiss business continued to distribute and sell elsewhere until around 1897.

Unless you worked in proximity to large electric motors or generators etc, the need for the average Joe to have a non-magnetic watch was a bit of a marketing myth. That myth was largely peddled by C.K. Giles and the Giles Brothers Company who had been profiteering as a railroad time service contractor and supplying such timepieces. Public interest waned as the realisation dawned, Giles went bust in 1893, and there was little market in such watches after about 1920, until the rise of the diesel-electric locomotive after WWII created timekeeping issues for those working in the industry.

The case is from a different maker so, as is usual, there is no automatic presumption that it’s the same age as the movement. Nevertheless, the LBF stamp crops up on cases that seem to have been sold generally around the 1880s, although the maker hasn’t been reliably identified.