Sterling 935 Pocket Watch. Who Dunnit?

Hello silver-ry peoples of the world!

Sorry for the not-the-best pictures. My friend owns the watch...

Anyway, any idea who, when and where for this nifty looking watch?

 

The rampant bear suggests this case is similar.....but your movement is NOT of the same quality...

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Rare-Antique...815?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cf8405a8f





I think it may be a copy kat of this style....as while your face is similar , to me...it's just not up to snuff !

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Unusual-anti...320?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item463628c928

 

That said , it may be of higher quality than I give credit for.......

 

& the kicker is.....i'd swear I've seen your movement before .....but can't place it....at a quarter to 3 in the morning.....!

Night , night !!

 

The hallmark of the case may well have nothing to do with the maker of the movement

Back in the day, they were sold separately

 

Early 20th C novelty lady's fob watch. Uninspiring quality. The ebay one llnked is way overpriced and the duffer selling it is using the GSP which is adding in another $300 in easily avoidable import charges for overseas buyers..

I'd see the one in this thread at about $150.

THe three bears mark was a way of distinguishing 0.875 silver from 0.935 silver, 0.875 only had one bear. No one knows why 935 was used when sterling is 0.925.

 

"No one knows why 935 was used when sterling is 0.925." seems they wanted to make sure that the English were satisfied in all cases of control. a bit a Swiss mentality. same in industry, cranes can lift two and a half times as much as is indicated by authorities, reinforced concrete contains -at least - two times the amount of iron as prescribed in France (not to think about Italy....).

 

As in the example of my golf watch, where the same case was used for both Cyma & Tavannes movements.

 

Cyma London belonged to Tavannes Watch Co., so not two companies.
generally, the Swiss didn't declare silver marks on small items mandatory except for watch cases. the three bears are really due to British legislation in the 1880s when import was only allowed with marks that followed the English system, so they simply added another two, most probably going up by two steps (900 was a very rare grade, and then 935) . we should not fotget that England wasn't the only export market. especially German trades companies bought masses of cases that sometimes ended up with three national marks, e.g. Swiss/German import/Russian because the Russiab assay offices weren't reliable and relied on German testing. very rare are Swiss/German/Chinese combinations that seem to have come to China via Russia to places like Mukden (today Shenyang) or to German trading places like Tsingtao (today Qingdao).