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)SerialDate4,312,414,713,014,215,4?15,4?15,917,4?16,6?17,817,817,817,817,817,817,817,817,917,917,917,917,917,917,917,917,917,918,018,018,018,018,018,018,018,018,018,018,018,018,118,118,118,118,118,118,118,218,218,218,2Benson stock?18,218,218,218,218,2?
How old is my watch? This is probably the most common question watch collectors have. Sometimes it is easy to answer, and sometimes it is impossible. The reason: There have been a lot of watch manufacturing companies that have come and gone over the years. Many have gone out of business, while others destroyed records to save space.
Tavannes Wristwatch
Up for sale is this Rare Vintage Cyma Tavannes Watersport cal. 430 k 17 jewel bumper automatic wrist watch movement balance moves when shaken but stops soon after missing top cap jewel bu. Rare Vintage Tavannes Watersport manual wind watch.
Some companies (as with the Gruen Watch Company), even lost rocords to fire or other natural disaster. The companies are not to blame. I am sure they had no idea that their timepieces would someday be collected. There are several ways to get an idea of when your watch was made. You will notice that there are many numbers stamped at various locations inside and outside your watch. They all mean different things. (See my section on to learn how to get inside your watch).
With the exception of BULOVA, the numbers on the inside and outside of the CASE ITSELF are ONLY for identification purposes - they mean nothing. The number you need is the serial number stamped on the MOVEMENT (i.e the inner workings). Write this number down and compare it to the charts on this website. This will give a good idea of the manufacture date. It will NOT tell you the actual date the watch was acquired.
Many watches spent years in warehouses before being sold. Keep this in mind. In the 1930's there was a style change from highly engraved cases to smoother cleaner lines. Notice that the watches from the early 1930's still have engraved cases. By the late 1930's mens watches were more masculine. Thin tank watches became fashionable. This was made possible by the advent of square movements.
Until then all movements were round, limiting the designs. The Bulova and Hamilton stepped cases shown here on the left are a perfect example of this.
Men were preferring tank watches, however only round movements were available, therefore the case was stepped to accomodate the movement and make the watch APPEAR to be square.