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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;afantiques, post: 179812, member: 25&quot;]I think everything has been covered by others. In my opinion the watch dates from around 1900, it has a Swiss barred cylinder movement with one glaring abnormailty.The barrel has a wolf&#039;s tooth winding wheel BUT no appaerent pawl. Wolf&#039;s toothe winding would be an abnormailty on such a pedestrian movement.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you go to wind it up, does the spring simply flop back again when you release the winding stem? I cannot see where a pawl should be and is missing.</p><p><br /></p><p>The marks are entirely normal and typical, the bird is a quail. Argent Dore is silver gilt.</p><p><br /></p><p>The fob is in my opnion a few decades earlier, made from a filled gold casing, thicker than your normal rolled gold, way thicker than plate but worn through in a typical manner. The usual term for this is a swivel fob.</p><p><br /></p><p>If the watch will wind, a little test will see if the balance swings, twist the watch in the plane of the movement and see if the balance swings, then apply a little pressure to the wound up winder and see if that provokes a tick or two. If it does, persist till it keeps on ticking, this may take half an hour of false starts. Warming the thing up in a pocket helps.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most frequently the failure of old watches to work is simply gummed up springs in barrels, once loosened they stay loose if the watch is wound now and again. By putting pressure on the train you are providing a manual power supply that the spring is failng to provide. That tiny bit of movement can be enough to ungum the train.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nowadays it is probably worth less than you are liable to be charged by some one competent to strip and clean it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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