The Blue Enamel Ermeto

The Ermeto is a watch built around one idea: that the case should do the winding. Opening the covers to read the time drives a rack in each slide against a pinion on the winding stem, and closing them drives it again. A few openings a day keep the movement running, and the crown, a small decorated rosette hidden in the top edge, is reached only when the covers sit in the right position and is needed only to set the hands. It is a purse watch, a desk watch and a travelling watch in one object, and Movado made it in four sizes. This is the Normal, 46.26 by 31.5mm closed, the size made for a pocket or a handbag, opening to 70mm on the desk.

What sets this example apart is the finish. The silver covers were engine-turned with a wave pattern across all four faces and then fired with a translucent royal blue enamel, so the guilloché shows through the colour and shifts as the watch is turned. Most Ermetos left the factory in leather, shagreen or plain metal; enamel was the costly option and is the one least often met with now. Where the pendant ring is fitted the cover has lost enamel on both faces, a fault set out plainly in the condition drawer, and the rest of the surface is bright and glossy.

Between the covers the dial is square and silvered, with rose-coloured batons, a double baton at twelve, a dotted minute track and blued steel feuille hands. Under the Movado signature sits an interlaced TCG monogram. It is not a Movado mark. The same monogram appears on a handful of other royal blue Ermetos, which points to a retailer ordering a small run in this colour and having the dials signed for the shop; the firm behind the initials has not been traced. Printed faintly beneath the twelve is U.S. Pat. 1,707,906, the number of the winding patent that makes the case work, granted in April 1929. A dial could not carry that number before the grant, and the case serial places the case in the months around it, so this is one of the first Ermetos finished with the patent on its face.

The marks, the movement and the condition are set out in the drawers below.