{"title":"Shop by Maker: English Makers","description":"English pocket watches, from London verge fusees to Chester and Birmingham hallmarked silver. Each is read by its hallmarks for maker, assay office and date, and confirmed running before it is listed.","products":[{"product_id":"j-g-graves-sheffield-express-english-lever-sterling-silver-pocket-watch-chester-1895","title":"The Express, an English Lever in Chester Silver, 1895","description":"\u003cp\u003eA piece of genuine Victorian watchmaking history, signed by one of England's most celebrated mail-order watch houses. Chester hallmarked to the year 1895, key-wound, and still running well after 130 years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJ.G. Graves of Sheffield was one of the major names of Victorian commercial watchmaking - not a maker but a mail-order retailer of great reach, who sold pocket watches to working Englishmen across the country. The \"Express\" English Lever was his flagship watch: a bold name, a recognisable red-and-black dial signature, and a serviceable movement inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis example is Chester hallmarked sterling silver, with the date letter confirmed to 1895. What sets it apart from the more common stem-wound versions is the key-wind movement - an earlier configuration that pre-dates the shift to crown winding, and one that speaks to the transitional character of late Victorian horology. The white enamel dial carries Roman numerals, gold-tone hands, and a subsidiary seconds register at 6 o'clock. The case back bears an engraved cartouche - blank shield with scrollwork, never personalised.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRunning well, keeping good time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"J.G. Graves of Sheffield","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54239630229843,"sku":"PW-0018","price":350.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/jg-graves-silver-pocket-watch-1895-front.jpg?v=1783546728"},{"product_id":"smiths-empire-gold-plated-pocket-watch-anglo-celtic-british-made-1962","title":"One of the Last Made in Britain, Anglo-Celtic, 1962","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the last genuinely British-made pocket watches - produced at the Anglo-Celtic factory in Wales and marked MADE IN GT. BRITAIN on both dial and movement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis Smiths Empire pocket watch was built in Wales at a time when Swiss and American movements dominated the market - at the Anglo-Celtic Watch Company's Ystradgynlais factory, a government-backed joint venture between Smiths and Ingersoll that produced over 30 million watches between 1946 and 1980.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe movement is the factory's founding Calibre PY - a robust pin-lever design descended from a 1905 American Ingersoll movement, built for everyday reliability and straightforward maintenance. The date code on the movement plate confirms 1962 manufacture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe gold-plated open-face case presents well, with an attractive engine-turned guilloche caseback and a clean white enamel dial carrying bold Roman numerals and a subsidiary seconds register at 6 o'clock. The watch winds smoothly, runs well, and sets correctly. An honest, wearable piece with genuine British provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Smiths Empire","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54239745016147,"sku":"PW-0007","price":150.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/smiths-empire-gold-plated-pocket-watch-1962-front.jpg?v=1783550703"},{"product_id":"j-g-graves-express-english-lever-sterling-silver-full-hunter-1893","title":"The Express, an English Lever in Serota Silver, 1893","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of Sheffield's finest names on the dial, Serota silver on the case, and a remarkably clean face after 130 years. This is an English lever done properly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJ.G. Graves of Sheffield was one of Victorian Britain's great mail-order jewellers - and in time, the Mayor of Sheffield. He apprenticed as a watchmaker at fourteen, built a mail-order empire that sold watches by the thousand, and at his peak was buying up to 70% of the entire output of the Lancashire Watch Company in Prescot. The \"Express English Lever\" was the cornerstone of his watch range: a quality LWC movement sold under the Graves house name to the growing Victorian middle class.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis example is in remarkable condition for its age. The white enamel dial is exceptionally clean - no chips, no crazing, no staining - with the red-printed Graves signature crisp and fully legible. The sterling silver case is solid and well-formed, with only the light surface wear expected of a watch that has lived 130 years. An engraved monogram cartouche to the outer case back adds a touch of Victorian personal history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe movement is confirmed Lancashire Watch Company, identifiable by the reversing pinion - LWC's patented safety mechanism that prevents gear train damage in the event of mainspring failure. The watch is key wound via a square aperture in the engine-turned dust cover. The movement winds and runs well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHallmarks to the inner case confirm sterling silver, Sheffield assay, and a precise date of 1893.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA presentable, running piece from a man who became Mayor of Sheffield - in unusually clean condition for its age.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"J.G. Graves of Sheffield","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54247890452819,"sku":"PW-0047","price":240.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/jg-graves-silver-pocket-watch-1893-front.jpg?v=1783613947"},{"product_id":"h-samuel-climax-trip-action-patent-sterling-silver-lwc-movement-chester-c-1900","title":"'Climax Trip Action' Patent, Retailed by H. Samuel, c.1900","description":"\u003cp\u003eA hallmarked Edwardian pocket watch from England's self-proclaimed largest lever watch maker, complete with a patented anti-overwinding mechanism and hand-finished scrollwork hands rarely seen at this level.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the closing years of the nineteenth century, Prescot in Lancashire was the beating heart of English watchmaking, and no firm made more of the fact than the Lancashire Watch Company, which advertised itself as the largest manufacturer of English lever watches in the world. This pocket watch is one of theirs: a sterling silver, open-face piece built for H. Samuel of Manchester and sold under their 'Climax' trade name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe movement carries the 'Trip Action Patent', a genuine mechanical safety feature that disengages the winding train once the mainspring is fully wound, protecting it from the overwinding damage that plagued lesser watches of the era. It is stamped 'Guaranteed English Manufacture Throughout', the trade's own quality mark at a time when cheaper Swiss imports were flooding the market.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe case is hallmarked at Chester - lion passant for sterling, the town's sword-and-wheatsheaves mark, and H. Samuel's own sponsor's mark, H.S - and dates to approximately 1900 to 1906 based on directly comparable examples. At 52.5mm it sits at the larger, more commanding end of the format.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe white enamel dial is in excellent, unmarked condition, signed in period script for 'The Climax Trip Action Patent' and 'H. Samuel, Manchester', with a subsidiary seconds register at six o'clock. The hands are a genuine surprise for a watch at this level: ornate, hand-finished scrollwork with a ball counterweight, a detail rarely mentioned on comparable examples of this model.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe front cover carries an engraved armorial crest, a small mark of a previous owner's pride in the piece. Wound and tested, it winds, sets, and runs correctly and consistently.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a watch with a real story: a named English factory at the height of its output, a patented mechanical safeguard, and a level of hand finishing that punches well above its price point.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lancashire Watch Company (retailed by H. Samuel, Manchester)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54248012185939,"sku":"PW-0056","price":225.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/h-samuel-silver-pocket-watch-c1900-front.jpg?v=1783615103"},{"product_id":"i-wills-london-verge-fusee-repousse-sterling-silver-pair-case-dutch-market-georgian-50-6mm-c-1750-1765","title":"Repoussé Silver Verge Fusee for the Dutch Market, c.1755","description":"\u003cp\u003eA running mid-18th-century verge fusee in a fine repoussé silver pair case, signed I. Wills, London and made for the Dutch market. Original bull's-eye crystal and a surviving Dutch repairer's label inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a mid-18th-century verge fusee pocket watch, signed I. Wills, London on the movement and made for the Dutch market around 1755. It survives complete in its original silver pair case and, unusually for its age, it winds, sets and runs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe watch belongs to a well-documented group: English-signed watches built in Continental style for sale in the Netherlands. The signs are all present. The gilt full-plate movement uses a pierced and engraved balance bridge rather than the small English cock-and-foot, with a silver figural regulator disc. The enamel dial has an arcaded (scalloped) chapter ring with Roman hours and an Arabic outer minute track, and the case carries a high-domed 'bull's-eye' crystal. 'I. Wills' is not a recorded London maker; like the better-known 'John Wilter' and 'William Crayton' names found on the same type of watch, it is a London-style signature applied for the export trade rather than a traceable workshop. On these watches the value lies in the type, the quality of the work and the fact that they run, not in the signature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe outer case is decorated in repoussé with a classical mythological scene of figures and putti in high relief within rococo scrollwork - crisp, well-modelled chasing that has survived in good order. The inner case carries a lion passant sterling standard mark. Inside the outer case is a 19th-century Dutch repairer's paper label, 'A. Guise, Mr Horologiemaker, Hoorn', with a hand-drawn rating disc - a piece of the watch's service history that we have left in place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCondition is honest for a watch approaching 270 years old. The movement runs and holds tension, the hands set correctly, and both cases close securely. The enamel dial has a single hairline crack; there are no losses. The case shows the surface wear you would expect. The bull's-eye crystal is intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSpecifications: sterling silver pair case, 50.6mm diameter, 29.5mm thick. Gilt full-plate verge fusee movement, key-wound and key-set, signed I. Wills, London, no. 1232. White enamel dial, Roman hours, Arabic minutes, pierced blued-steel hands. English, made for the Dutch market, c.1750-1765.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA genuine Georgian verge in running order, with a good repoussé case and a documented Dutch history. Pocket watches of this period and type are increasingly sought after, and running examples in complete pair cases are becoming harder to find.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"I. Wills, London","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54250302734675,"sku":"PW-0079","price":1850.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/i-wills-silver-pocket-watch-c1750-front_hero.jpg?v=1785271387"},{"product_id":"d-d-neveren-london-verge-fusee-silver-pair-case-dutch-market-georgian-54mm-c-1800-1820","title":"Silver Verge Fusee with its Heerenveen Retailer Label, c.1810","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is an English-pattern verge fusee pocket watch in matching silver pair cases, signed D.D. Neveren, London on both the enamel dial and the movement. It is key-wound and key-set, and it winds and runs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe movement is the reason to own it. It is a full gilt-plate verge with a chain-driven fusee, the earlier of the two great English going-train systems, in which a line pulls against a tapering cone to even out the mainspring's power across the wind. The balance sits under a large pierced and engraved balance cock of the classic English pattern, backed by a pierced gilt dust cap and a silver regulating disc. It is a genuinely decorative piece of early nineteenth-century watchmaking, the kind of hand-finishing that later mass production replaced.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe name needs context. 'D.D. Neveren' is not a recorded English maker, and the watch carries the paper trade label of B. Keithen, Horologiemaker te Heerenveen, inside the outer case. Both point to the same thing: this is one of the large number of English-pattern, London-signed verge watches made or finished for the Dutch market, where English watches were prized and widely retailed. The silver pair cases carry genuine London hallmarks - leopard's head town mark, lion passant, a worn date letter and the sponsor's mark JDB - so the cases are English silver even where the signature is a market name. The Heerenveen label is not a flaw but documented history: it ties the watch to a specific Friesland retailer and to the Anglo-Dutch watch trade of the period.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eStyle and the retailer's label place it around 1800 to 1820. The hallmark date letter is too worn to give a precise year; a specialist may be able to lift it under magnification.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt measures 54mm across the case and 22mm deep, a substantial watch to hold. The white enamel dial has Roman hour numerals, an outer Arabic five-minute track and ornate cartouche markers, with blued steel hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCondition is honest and unrestored. It winds, sets and runs; both cases close securely; the high-domed crystal is intact. The enamel dial is bright with fine hairlines and light surface spotting and no chips. One hand tip is damaged. The outer case shows heavy honest scratching from age and use. Nothing has been polished out or over-restored.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor a collector it is an accessible entry into genuine verge fusee watchmaking with a story attached: English craft, Dutch commerce, and a named local retailer, all documented on the watch itself. Offered ready to display, with full research and condition notes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"D.D. Neveren (London-signed, Dutch market)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54250361192787,"sku":"PW-0080","price":525.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/neveren-silver-pocket-watch-c1800-front.jpg?v=1783622882"},{"product_id":"victorian-birmingham-sterling-silver-fusee-pocket-watch-c-1880s","title":"Victorian Birmingham Sterling Silver Fusee Pocket Watch, c.1880s","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA fully hallmarked Birmingham silver pocket watch built around a hand-engraved fusee lever movement, complete with its original key and running exactly as it should.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a Victorian pocket watch in fully hallmarked Birmingham sterling silver, built to the standard of England's mid-to-late nineteenth century watch trade. The case carries the full run of assay marks you want to see on a piece like this: the Birmingham anchor, the lion passant for sterling standard, and a sponsor's mark reading GC\u0026amp;Co, alongside its own case number, 31611.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside is a hand-engraved fusee movement with a lever escapement, a genuine mechanical step up from the simple going-barrel movements found in most watches of this type. The fusee, a cone-shaped chain-driven mechanism, was designed to even out the pulling power of the mainspring as it unwinds, so the watch keeps steadier time through its full wind. By the time this watch was made it was already an older, more considered way of building a movement, and it shows a level of care that a plain barrel movement does not.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe movement plate carries an engraved signature reading 'Cha's Sim' and a surname we have not been able to confirm with certainty against any watch trade or retailer record, and a separate stamped mark reading INSCH. INSCH may point to Insch, a small town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, since it was common practice for country jewellers of this period to retail an English-made, Birmingham-cased movement under their own local shop signature rather than the manufacturer's name. We have not been able to confirm this connection through any surviving record, so we are presenting it honestly as an open question rather than a settled fact. Whoever Cha's Sim was, they were selling a well-made watch.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dial is white enamel with Roman numerals and a subsidiary seconds register at six o'clock, set behind blued steel spade hands. It shows only light, honest age spotting, nothing that detracts from legibility or presentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePresentation-wise this watch is in Very Good condition. The 52mm case shows honest wear consistent with its age, opens and closes cleanly on its hinge, and the only point worth noting is a cosmetic looseness in the case-release button, which does not affect function. The glass crystal is undamaged. Mechanically the watch winds, sets, and runs correctly by its original key, which is included, a detail that matters for a key-wind watch of this age since keys are so often the first thing lost over a century and a half.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBirmingham became the centre of England's silver watch case trade through the nineteenth century, turning out cases for movements finished by makers and retailers across the country. A watch like this, cased and hallmarked in Birmingham but sold on by a country retailer under its own name, is exactly the kind of object that trade produced in enormous numbers, and exactly the kind that has become steadily harder to find in genuinely running order. Most surviving examples from this period need service before they can be trusted; this one already runs, winds, and sets as it should.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor a collector or a first-time buyer of antique pocket watches, this is a sound way into the category: a real hallmarked silver case, a movement with a genuine mechanical refinement in the fusee, honest and legible condition, and its key still with it after more than a century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Estate Collection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54429833527635,"sku":"PW-0108","price":650.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/cha-s-sim-retailer-signed-surname-unconfirmed-sterling-silver-pocket-watch-1_hero.jpg?v=1785286749"}],"url":"https:\/\/estatecollection.nl\/collections\/shop-by-maker-english-makers.oembed","provider":"The Estate Collection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}