25-Year Service Watch, Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG, 1939
A Junghans open-face watch in 800 silver, made about 1939 and engraved inside for 25 years of service with the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG.
The inner cover is polished and engraved in script: Für treue Dienste, 1914-1939, Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-A.-G. The dates give the years of service. The outer back is engine-turned, with a round cartouche engraved WL. Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG was founded in 1873 and by 1907 was the largest German mining company by output; in 1926 it passed 41 coal mines to the newly formed Vereinigte Stahlwerke. Gebrüder Junghans of Schramberg supplied service watches to the Ruhr mining companies, and a near-identical example with the same wording, given by Hibernia AG for 1913 to 1938, is held by the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum in Bochum.
The movement is Junghans calibre 47c/1, introduced in 1938: an 18.5 ligne bridge movement with 15 jewels, a lever escapement and a stop-seconds device, with a separate bridge for the escape wheel. It is signed with the Junghans star and numbered 135346, and the gilt plate is clean.
The white enamel dial is signed Junghans in script. It has large Art Deco Arabic numerals, a 13 to 24 hour ring on the chapter track and subsidiary seconds at six. The hands are gilt, a lozenge hour hand and an open-circle minute hand, with a blued seconds hand. The enamel has no chips or hairlines.
The case is 49.7mm, with a hinged back and a hinged inner cover, both closing securely. Inside are the 800 fineness mark with the German crown and crescent, and the Junghans star. The silver is heavily tarnished, with light rubbing at the edges. The watch winds smoothly, sets by pulling the crown out, and runs well.
