Invar pocket watch

[Swamp3n]

Can anyone give me some more information about this watch

[von Corax]

Invar, if memory serves, is a metal alloy with an unusually low coefficient of thermal expansion (that is, it doesn't grow or shrink much when it gets hot or cold). Its use in key components of a watchworks means the watch will not change speed significantly with changes in temperature. Apparently it can also make the watch less susceptible to interference from strong magnetic fields.

For your particular watch, clear photos and descriptions of the markings on the mechanism (this photo):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

and on the inside of the back case (this photo, upper part):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

will be of great help to the horologists and archæohorologists on this board.

Other than that, I'm afraid all I can tell you is that it looks like a very nice watch.

Edited for errant punctuation.

[Mr. Boltneck]

Nice watch.
Invar is a wonderfully odd alloy. If I remember right, one of its first commercial uses was in surveyor's chains.
I used to work for a company which made a high-tech soldering iron which used an alloy similar to Invar to control when the tip was heated by current and when it wasn't. By adjusting the alloys used, they were able to control the temperature at which the crystal structure, and thus the magnetic properties, changed.

[Abslomrob]

Gorgeous case; Is that enamel on silver with gold overlay? 

The Invar watch company was founded in 1901 by Achille Hirsch in Le Chaux de Fonds, but they didnt' register the name until 1925.  Your watch has medallions from the 1906 Worlds Fair, so it would have been made after that.  The timing of the company's founding is interesting, because Invar (the material) was only invented in 1896.  Mr. Hirsch was a rather prolific watch distributor around the turn of the century, who registered literally hunderds of trademarks, so to some degree this watch represents an attempt to profit from the new material.  Around that time, there was a fairly large industry in what's known as "Swiss Fakes"...low-grade swiss watches that were meant to look like better quality watches.  One of the ways these "Swiss Fakes" kept costs down was to not use the split bi-metallic balance wheels that better quality watches used to help offset temperature differences.  The new Invar material made the split bi-metallic balance obsolete, but looked similar to the cheap balances used by the swiss fakes.  So branding the watch "Invar" meant that the consumer didn't have to worry about that.

As far as the watch itself goes, it's a good (but not great) example of a swiss bridge design, with somewhat fanciful bridge modifications.  The crescent shaped regulator is quite nice, if rather impractical.  Well worth getting serviced and passing down through the generations!  Protect that case; that style is rare, and good quality examples have a hard time surviving the years.

[Prof Thadeus Q. Wychlock]

The case decoration looks almost like niello.

[Swamp3n]

Well first of all Thank you all for your comments, appreciate it alot =)

[Corax]
you wanted me to get a better picture and a other picture. well they aint maybe better but will try to make it as good as possible whit some marks

[Abslomrob] - Gorgeous case; Is that enamel on silver with gold overlay?
you got some good eyes


1. 19045
2. 1542
3. (think it is) 7696 its four more number under but to small to see at the moment
4. 5893-88
5. 33175
6. thinks it is 68801 or 88806
7. C.M.I
8. Niel HF
9. 0.800
 Aint 100% sure about the numbers but what Ill understand it isnt that usefull will get the numbers right in a day or two just need some EQ that is lost in my draw somewere

1. 567
2. INVAR
3.332568

Thanks, appreciate all of your comments alot. If you need more information to help me just say what you need and Ill get it

[Pike]

That is a lovely watch    Definitely look into taking it to a good watchmaker and getting it cleaned and serviced.