Help identifying watch.
Discussion
Firstly apologise for pictures. This lovely bracelet watch was left to me by my Grandma. I know nothing about it, apart from I love it. I have tried finding out about it online but have never seen one similar. There is no makers mark on the dial, but there is a little A&coLtd and some numbers inside the "tulip" if you know what I mean! I would love to know more about it, when it was made and by whom. It still works, but I am scared to over wind it. ![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/a2ZehI10.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/8EVlF6KO" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/8EVlF6KO.jpg)
Well, that's rather nice (and a bit of a change from the usual in here!)
Can't tell you much from the photo I'm afraid, but the A&Co Ltd mark is for Asprey & Co. Depending on the style of the mark it's likely to be between about 1905 and 1936. From the style of the watch itself I'd suspect later rather than earlier but it should be possible to date it accurately from the hallmarks (I'm assuming it's a solid gold case) which may be inside the watch case rather than outside.
In any case, it's a quality piece (look up Asprey) and, even without the sentimental value, well worth looking after
As for over-winding, please don't be afraid of that. It's a myth, built up over many years and kept going in part by unscrupulous repairers who use it as a reason for failure - "It's not covered by guarantee, sir, you've over-wound it".
Manual wind watches are designed and intended to be fully wound each day - that is, wound until you can't turn the winder any more. What happens is one of two things:
(1) People who're used to winding "so many turns" each day instead of "until it won't turn" pick it up one morning, when it's stopped overnight because of a fault, and the first thing they do is wind it. Because it had stopped early, it hadn't wound down far enough for their customary 20 (or whatever) turns so, as they count turns, it comes up solid but doesn't start because of whatever the fault was. They then believe they've caused it to stop by "over-winding".
(2) You pick a watch up and start to wind it. As you do, you hear a sharp click sound and all tension goes from the winding because the mainspring's broken. You then decide (because everyone "knows" the phrase) that you broke the spring by over-winding it. In fact, mainsprings break because of faults in the spring or years of fatigue. ore often than not they'll break while being wound simply because that's when they're under the most stress. But it's the fault or fatigue that caused them to break, NOT the act of winding!
Can't tell you much from the photo I'm afraid, but the A&Co Ltd mark is for Asprey & Co. Depending on the style of the mark it's likely to be between about 1905 and 1936. From the style of the watch itself I'd suspect later rather than earlier but it should be possible to date it accurately from the hallmarks (I'm assuming it's a solid gold case) which may be inside the watch case rather than outside.
In any case, it's a quality piece (look up Asprey) and, even without the sentimental value, well worth looking after
As for over-winding, please don't be afraid of that. It's a myth, built up over many years and kept going in part by unscrupulous repairers who use it as a reason for failure - "It's not covered by guarantee, sir, you've over-wound it".
Manual wind watches are designed and intended to be fully wound each day - that is, wound until you can't turn the winder any more. What happens is one of two things:
(1) People who're used to winding "so many turns" each day instead of "until it won't turn" pick it up one morning, when it's stopped overnight because of a fault, and the first thing they do is wind it. Because it had stopped early, it hadn't wound down far enough for their customary 20 (or whatever) turns so, as they count turns, it comes up solid but doesn't start because of whatever the fault was. They then believe they've caused it to stop by "over-winding".
(2) You pick a watch up and start to wind it. As you do, you hear a sharp click sound and all tension goes from the winding because the mainspring's broken. You then decide (because everyone "knows" the phrase) that you broke the spring by over-winding it. In fact, mainsprings break because of faults in the spring or years of fatigue. ore often than not they'll break while being wound simply because that's when they're under the most stress. But it's the fault or fatigue that caused them to break, NOT the act of winding!
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