Vintage Lapel Watches

Since Cynthia's "large" collection only had 8 watches, I've asked others to donate pictures of interesting lapel watches they own. If you have some you think would make good additions to this gallery, please send pictures of the front and back to me at jewels@illusionjewels.com.

A Bit of Watch History

The first watches appear to have been made during the early 1500's, but were not reliable at keeping time. They were more of a status symbol worn by the wealthy. Queen Elizabeth I and members of her court wore watches on chains or ribbons around their necks as fashion accessories. They were usually elaborately decorated or often enclosed in elaborate cases. Some early watch cases were in the form of animals or other objects with the watch hidden inside.

In 1785 George Washington had a watch and chain made for his wife Martha. Also, late in the 1700's watches were often worn suspended from chatelaine pins. Ladies' "pocket" style watches continued to be worn on chains or suspended from "watch pins" through the early 1900's. A 1902 catalog shows ladies' enameled lapel "pocket" style watches on matching enameled fleur-de-lis pins. Enamel ball watches appeared as early as 1915, as did ring watches. The first true lapel watch, meant to be worn upside down, that I found was in a 1915 catalog.

From Carolyn Sunday: All antique watch cases marked "14K" are not necessarily solid gold. Many marked 14K are gold filled and were marked so before regulations were in place about karat marking. The Complete Price Guide To Watches has guides to hallmarks that tell which companies used these hallmarks. Another very good resource is the website of NAWCC - The Association of Watch And Clock Collectors.

Also, from Carolyn Sunday: "The Elgin (courtesy Lee Lowe) and the Lady Elgin (courtesy Lilly, Vittetow) in the album are referred to as 'transitional watches'. The reason that they are looped at the bottom is because they were transitioning between the popularity of the lapel watch up to around 1920, to the coming fashion of the wrist watch. These usually came with wrist strap attachments so that they could be worn both ways. After 1920 many watch manufacturers were stuck with lapel watches that were no longer fashionable, and this was there way of transitioning into the new market of the wrist watch. Typically the straps were grosgrain ribbon with snap fittings at the wrist." Cynthia wrote:

Antique lapel watches caught my attention when I fell in love with one I won in an auction. It is the Bennett lapel watch shown in this collection. With this watch I learned some great facts to know about antique watches per my friend, Carolyn Sunday of sundayandsunday.com, who specializes in antique period jewelry. I learned the watch is an original old Edwardian to Deco transitional piece, circa 1920-1940. The tiny hand at the bottom that counts off seconds is referred to as a subsidiary seconds hand. The crystal is domed glass. The blued steel hands are blued in the same process used to do gun bluing. The watch was in poor shape and did not run, but I had it restored. The oil had leaked into the crystal and it was hard to see the copper colored face.