Thursday 1 October 2015

Dating Movements by Cyma & Tavannes

I recently had a query on dating these movements so have posted the answer here so I'll not have to do it again.

The serial number on these movements are under the dial as show to the right. My dating is based on a reasonable number of watches, listed below, in hallmarked silver or gold movements. The sample is heavily biased to watches retailed by J.W. Benson, largely because other retailers frequently used Swiss hallmarked silver cases which do not carry a date mark. Benson appear to have switched from Revue to Tavannes in about 1932 the database is only good for the 1930s.

It must be remembered that a movement might not go straight into a case which itself may have been on the shelf for a while so there will be some overlap, also the hallmarking years of the various assay houses are not in line with each other or the with calendar but the difference is small and the date is likely to be accurate to plus or minus a year.  (updated Feb 2017)

Serial Date
      4,322,549 1908
    12,487,883 1919
    14,708,666 1919
    13,079,475 1921
    14,262,246 1924
    15,485,579 1926?
    15,485,952 1926?
    15,939,146 1926
    17,482,498 1929?
    16,624,975 1930?
    17,865,828 1932
    17,886,973 1932
    17,888,724 1932
    17,888,811 1931
    17,889,975 1932
    17,899,152 1931
    17,899,219 1932
    17,889,918 1932
    17,902,501 1932
    17,903,525 1932
    17,903,625 1932
    17,908,930 1932
    17,909,034 1932
    17,909,035 1932
    17,944,833 1933
    17,944,871 1933
    17,966,044 1933
    17,970,131 1933
    18,045,354 1935
    18,045,567 1935
    18,050,727 1935
    18,052,802 1936
    18,055,283 1936
    18,055,497 1936
    18,055,498 1936
    18,055,544 1936
    18,066,750 1935
    18,070,392 1936
    18,076,649 1936
    18,090,883 1936
    18,112,605 1937
    18,112,379 1936
    18,113,219 1937
    18,141,556 1937
    18,146,434 1937
    18,146,664 1938
    18,199,372 1937
    18,240,750 1938
    18,245,978 1938
    18,246,001 1938
    18,252,273 1940 Benson stock?
    18,253,220 1939
    18,256,774 1938
    18,265,158 1938
    18,268,000 1940
    18,276,566 1947?

1 comment:

Esmee said...

Probably know that Wikipedia states that Cyma watches from the 1950s retailed between approximately $400 and $25,000 (figures adjusted to 2010 inflation), which i think it's just awesome!

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