English silver Waltham Riverside half hunter pocket watch c1886

This is a rare and hard to find pocket watch. The movement was made by Waltham, USA circa 1886. It was then sent to England where it was cased and sold with hallmarks for Chester 1887. This was a common practice for American and Swiss made watches wanting to be sold in the UK. However those watches conformed to a normal size with cases made by Dennison and others to fit a standard size watch. This case and watch are of completely different proportions and is of much higher quality than usual with gold accents. Finally the fact that it has Chester hallmarks instead of London or Birmingham adds to its rarity.

Movement – the gilt ¾ plate 15 jewel movement has a lever escapement with a patent regulator. The movement has screw jewel settings, damascening on the winding wheels and is signed “AWWCo, Riverside, Waltham, Mass, Adjusted” # 2982665. The movement is in 95% mint condition

Case – the movement comes in an English silver half hunter case which is deeper and larger case than usual. The case has a hinged inner, back and front cover. The front cover pops open to around 45 degrees when you press the winder in. The case has blue enamel Roman numerals on the front. The rest of the case has a gold thumbnail lip on the back and gold hinges. The rest of the case has a smooth plain finish and is in 90% mint condition – on close inspection with a strong eye glass you can see scratches and small marks but in the hand it looks more like 95% mint condition

Dial – the white enamel dial has a full set of blue steel hands and is signed “A.W.Co. Waltham”. The dial is in 100% mint condition

The watch has a mineral glass over the dial and also in the front cover

The watch is stem wound / lever set

The watch measures 52mm wide x 16mm deep