Passions Watch Exchange

About This Watch

Vintage. No boxes or papers.

A very fine Vacheron & Constantin Genève open face pocket watch in solid 14K Rose gold case with an oven baked white enamel dial. This watch has a set of spade style style hands in solid gold fitted to it while the dial has large Arabic numerals in black and a sunken small seconds. The dial is perfect and flawless. A beauty with strong & simple profile at it's best.

Vacheron & Constantin is the oldest watch manufacturer in continuing production for the last four centuries centuries starting in 1755 and our watch here dates back to 1911, the year when WWI broke up most of Europe with the total collapse of the Ottoman Empire and rewrote many European borders. This watch was there and saw it all including the devastating WW2. It is more than a Century old now and was made by the Geneva factory for the European market with a triple signed case, dial and movement. On the dustcover, it is engraved with "W. Helm, Wein, 1. Wipplingstrasse, 21

Wien is Vienna which is the German-speaking capital city of present day Austria while W.Helm would be Wilhelm which is German for William and a present day address would be Wipplingerstraße 1, 1010 Wien, Austria.

On a name search for Wilhem Wien, the closest (and immediate) match that we found was this so if this watch could belonged to the acclaimed Nobel laureate German physicist? In 1911, the production year of this watch, Wilhelm Wien was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on thermal radiation. Would this watch be a celebration or a gift for his great achievement?

To understand more about this watch, we'll have to look deep into history and check on historical maps as well. Between 1867 to 1918, Vienna was the capital city of the Austria-Hungary Empire, ruled by the House of Habsburg, throne to the Holy Roman Empire and one of the most influential royal family of Europe. It was the 2nd largest European state after the Russian Empire. However, on 28 June 1914, with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declared War on Serbia which started WWI and the Empire was dissolved after the great War.

Among the articles found on web, there were no mention of Wilhem living in Vienna. He was a friend of Albert Einstein, travelled widely, delivering lectures in Columbia University (US) and together with his cousin, Max Wien, they forged a close collaboration with a Viennese physicist Max Seddig to produce amplifier tubes on an industrial scale so a relationship with this German speaking capital city is established. Perhaps our watch here is a connection between them? What did they do during the War and how did this watch survive the calamities? Fascinating.

On another hand, we cannot find any concrete information with the engraved name and address that could be related to any jewellers unless some Viennese can tell us more so the relationship of this watch with Nobel laureate Wilhem Wien is our only lead and seems concrete. Please have a look at a film on the streets of Vienna in 1911 here and a longer story on the life of Wilhem here.

The watch has been carefully polished and is free from dents or any deep scratches but do expect some shades of old marks if you're fussy and are best left as it is without further polishing. It is in exceptional condition throughout with tight hinges and especially the bow ring does not swing loose but remains tight at any position. All the hinges work well and covers snap tightly. It takes 12 rounds on the crown to fully wind it up and the watch ticks for one and a half days. The 14K gold squirrel hallmark can be seen clearly on the original bow ring as well, which reveals how little wear it saw throughout the last century.

All properly signed and hallmarked with a remarkable provenance.

*6% GST is included in the advertised price for sales in Malaysia only & discount will be given for cash payment.