Help identifying a watch

[sstakoff]

Have oppty to pick up a pocket watch from a private seller, but have VERY limited information.
Dial says “recorbet” and movement is marked “Magnus”. SN: 141373 I only have the attached – poor quality photos.
Any ideas as to what this may be? Watch is non-operational but price is attractive.

• This topic was modified 3 years ago by Tamas Richard.

[chris mabbott]

It’s probably a euro watch. It has an extra complication on it, can’t tell from the photos, could be a wind indicator or a calender function :

Personally, I would veer clear of it, especially if it’s broken, and especially if your experience with complicated watches is minimal.
Finding parts for early Swiss/euro watches is veeery difficult, if not impossible..You are already having problems finding out what it is, so you can imagine how hard it will be to find parts..

Many of the early euro watches were not produced by automated means, mostly in a production line of many individual watchmakers who made parts by hand, during a time when most craftsmen actually could make their parts on site.. So each part is never identical to it’s brother watch..

Not saying that is the case with this one, but I simply don’t know. There were millions of watches made by well known and obscure companies..
You might have some luck on the NAWCC forum, there are many Swiss watch collectors there with much knowledge..

[sstakoff]

Interesting! Thanks for the viewpoint.

Stu…

[david pierce]

Sstakoff,
If you can get that watch at a super cheap price, even if you could not get repair parts, you could learn a lot from taking it apart and reassembling it. Outside of cleaning and demagnatizing the most common malfunctions I have found are either a broken mainspring or a broken pivot. If you can pick it up for less than $20.00 I don’t see how you could go wrong.
david

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