Friday, October 16, 2009

Fontain Mystery Watch


This past Summer my sister handed me a shoebox of old knick-knacks that had belonged to my father. He had passed away about twenty years ago and I guess, at the time, I wasn't interested in the items that were inside of the box. Now, some twenty years later, I found myself going through the box again. This time I would take the Seiko Quartz (I dated it to 1985) and a watch with the name Fontain on it.


My problem is that I don't know anything about the watch or the company. I found only two images on the internet of Fontain watches. One was dated from the 1950s and the other from the 1930s. This Fontain looks older.






The case hinges open and the movement can be removed easily. The inside of the case Indicates "14K" and has a proof mark that looks like a squirrel. That strap is probably from the 1980s.





The squirrel proof mark is just above the "14K" stamp. The hand wind movement is engraved with WELSAMWATCH, SWISS (in two places), FOUR 4 ADJTS and FIFTEEN 15 JEWELS.






There is a serial number stamped 195831 on the inside of the case back. There are also several other numbers that are scratched into the inside of the case possibly by whoever serviced the watch. I don't know if it's important but the domed crystal is acrylic or some other clear plastic.




The watch has been running for over two hours and, so far, it's dead on. Of course two hours isn't enough time to truly test the accuracy of a watch but if there was a real deviation I would have noticed it by now.

I invite you to look at the images in this post and let me know if you have any info regarding the history, date of manufacture or value of this timepiece. Thanks.

1 comment:

  1. Did you ever get an more info on the Fountain watch?

    ReplyDelete