Featured Silver pocket watch

Can anyone please tell me about the hallmarks on this old silver pocketwatch that I believe belonged to one of my grandfathers and was in amongst other silver items boxed up after my father died. Unfortunately it as lost its second hand and glass but any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

The case was made in Birmingham (England), 1845:
Birmingham Date Letters (silvermakersmarks.co.uk)

I can't quite make out the letters under the hallmarks... R&G? R&S?...
EDIT: If R&S... Rotherham & Son.

 

1847 on the face......so the timing jives..

 

Thank you so much for all your replies. Yes it is R & S, so Rotherham & Son.
The date must mean it could even have been one of my great grandfathers, as my Dad was born in 1911 & Mum in 1914. Both have now been dead for a number of years, and unfortunately I can’t remember anything ever being said about this pocket-watch, so I’ve no idea of who its original owner was.

 

If you can find a competent watchmaker, replacing the crystal & hand shouldn't be an issue. Nice watch

 

I’ve never seen a year on a pocket watch dial like this. To those more experienced than me, is this common? If not common is it something you’ve seen at all? I haven’t dealt extensively in 19th c pocket watches but would love to know.

 

I have seen years on SOME watches, but it's almost exclusively limited to stuff like the founding-years of the companies that made the watches. Other than that, I don't think it's been a very common practice.

Of course, you could get what are called "private label" watches. Basically, if you were a jewelry store or a watch-shop or something, you could write to a watchmaking factory (for example, Hamilton), and say: "I want to buy 5,000 units from you of this type of watch, I want the dial to say "Tick Tock Clocks & Watches". Enclosed is the customisation fee..."

And the factory would produce them to your specifications - for a fee, of course - and post them to you. I've seen a lot of private-label watches. I used to own a few. It's a prettty common practice, but so far as I know, it's limited to company or shop-names, etc. I've never seen it done for years.

 

The date mark looks more like 1845. There are more marks on the stem. The design is machine cut which puts it into the early machine age. The actual back, under the dust cover is not pictured, so we are unable to look at the works. Does it run? If not it may not be worth fixing and may be of personal historical value only. In which case I would forego getting it repaired and put a small note in the back of it with info and stick it in a sock and stow it away.

 

Just bought a box full of pocket watches at auction a month or so ago. I’m price researching I became aware of private label stuff. Some sells for crazy money over more standard releases. It would be neat to know what this dated watch was commemorating!