1904 English Smith & Son Tourbillon Pocket Watch | New Orleans, Hour 3 |
#Antique clock #Pocket watch #Tourbillon Smith & Son 1904
The Smith & Son 1904 Tourbillon Pocket Watch is an extremely unusual and highly collectible mechanical watch made in England in the early 20th century. It was featured on the Antiques Roadshow in New Orleans in 2017, where expert Peter Planes estimated its value at $40,000–$50,000.
🕰️ Outstanding features of the Smith & Son 1904 Tourbillon watch
Brand: Smith & Son Ltd., a famous watchmaker in London, specializing in supplying watches to the British and Indian governments.
Year of manufacture:
Material: The watch case is made of 18k gold, providing a luxurious appearance and high durability.
Machine: Equipped with a one-minute tourbillon movement, one of the most complex mechanisms in the watch industry, which improves accuracy by rotating the entire escapement.
Sub-functions: The watch has two sub-dials: one displays continuous seconds and the other displays the remaining energy level (up-and-down indicator).
Rarity: This is one of the rare tourbillon pocket watches produced in the early 20th century, increasing its collectible value.
It was a gift from my father. My father grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was given to him
from a neighbor. His neighbor was a civil engineer and his neighbor also ran a radio repair shop
in his basement and my dad helped him repair radios and he actually told me that this man
inspired him to go on to MIT and so it's really special. We know it's a pocket watch. It's 18
karat gold. It was made by Smith & Son in London. Okay. And they were famous watchmakers. They made
watches for the British Royalty. They made them for the Admiralty, for the Navy. They were very
famous for making chronometers and very accurate time pieces. They were also made watches for the
King of Spain. Oh okay because it's called the King of Spain watch by my family. Oh is that right?
Right. It's written somewhere on it. I think on the inside. Well we'll open it up and look at it.
Well let's study the face of the watch first. You have an hour hand of course like all watches
and a minute hand and a constant running second hand. Okay. Do you know what that little dial is
and that hand is up there? I'm not sure. I think it said wind on it. It says up down. Wind? So yeah.
Okay. That's all I know. It's called a power reserve indicator or a winding indicator
and basically it would tell you how much time the watch had left before it would stop ticking so
you would know when to wind the watch. And I'm going to just give it a quick turn. As we
turn the watch to wind it, watch that hand move. You see that's moving. Okay. And so that winding
indicator would turn and you would know when you wound the watch all the way up. You'd also know
when you have to wind the watch again. It's a very heavy case. 18 karat solid gold. The case was made
by Frederick Toms. He was a famous English case maker. Now the watch has an enameled porcelain
dial which is a very faint hairline crack and that was about the only flaw that I could see in it.
But other than that the watch has a very special feature that I want to show you. Okay. When we
open up the back of the watch you'll see here that there's the escapement of the watch. Now
this has a very special type of escapement known as a tourbillion. Okay. And the whole
escapement makes one revolution every 60 seconds. Tourbillions were invented by Breguet who was
really the most famous watchmaker in France. He was 50 years ahead of everybody else. Breguet
didn't make this actual tourbillion but this was his invention. And what it was made for was to
counteract the effects of gravity on the watch. When a watch lays flat, gravity is pulling on
it. And if you turn the watch over now gravity is pulling on it another way. So it was thought
that if the escapement was constantly revolving gravity would never be pulling on it in one
particular direction. Okay. And therefore it would be of the utmost accuracy. These escapements are
really incredibly rare. Really? Now you mentioned the King of Spain watch and it's upside down but
it says maker to the admiralty and it's signed by the maker here Smith and Son London. It also
says his majesty the King of Spain with the royal warrants. And one other interesting feature on
these watches is that it actually spun all the way around here. Your watch is hallmarked and
I dated them. The case was manufactured in 1904. I think this case could be as heavy as three ounces
of 18 karat gold. Okay. Which at present gold prices today would put the gold value at over
two thousand dollars and close to three thousand dollars. Oh wow. Okay. The power reserve indicator
adds a little bit to the value of it. So a watch like this with a power reserve indicator,
nice heavy big English watch, with a normal escapement would retail for around four to five
thousand dollars. Wow. This watch in the present market would retail between forty to fifty
thousand dollars. Oh my gosh. You're kidding. No. Wow. I had no idea. I better be careful with it.
This tourbillion escapement is still rare today and it's made for very collectible watches. Let's
take an example of like a Patek Philippe wristwatch. A strap Patek Philippe 18 karat gold. Retail price
let's say is around twenty thousand dollars. That same watch with a tourbillion escapement would
retail by Patek Philippe between 200 and 250 thousand dollars. Oh wow. So it's something
really wonderful to have and very special. That's amazing. Well I knew it was a special watch but
I didn't know how special.