Imagine stopping at the local jeweler in 1914 on your way home from the factory. The Great War has yet to start, although you want a good pocket watch should you get called to serve. You choose this new South Bend from behind the counter, wind it for the first time, set the hands, pay the clerk, and proudly head home for dinner, feeling its steady ticking in your pocket. Want to be the next owner?
South Bend was famous for freezing their watches in blocks of ice for their ad campaigns. The company was a restart of the old Columbus Watch Company after the Studebaker Brothers bought it out in 1903 and transferred all of the tooling and most of the workers to Indiana, only to fail like so many other brands during the Great Depression after producing roughly a million watches in all grades. This fantastic 19-jewel pendant-set example is an original one, as well as an exceptional one with all of its jewels still intact after 110 years. It was just thoroughly cleaned and timed, showing bright gold jewel settings in a full train and an extra set of cap jewels on the escape wheel (for more about what that means, visit the Jewels page). The Arabic dial has a small patch at the 37-minute-mark behind blued spade-and-poker hands, but the best part is the gold-filled Keystone case that is remarkably crisp with pinstripes on the back cover surrounding a blank shield. The bow is tight, the crown is sharp, the crystal is beveled glass, and the covers thread on nicely. Don't miss out on this superb survivor from World War I. Matching lanyard and display stand included.
Manufacturer - South Bend
Serial Number - 808861
Watch Size - 16
Watch Model - 2
Watch Grade - 219
Jewel Count - 19
Winding/Setting - Stem/Pendant
Production Year - 1914
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