Beschreibung:

Silver double cased hermetic watch. Swiss patent number 138244. Case number 1491843. Year 1930. Swiss manual wind 15 jewel movement, possibly by Fontainemelon. Cushion shaped 33 mm outer case with screw down bezel forming a hermetic seal to protect the hinged, circular inner case with white enamel dial, blued steel luminous hour and minute hands, subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o' clock, black Arabic numerals with blue 12 o' clock and outer minute track. Later brown leather strap with pin buckle clasp. Case stamped with Edinburgh import marks for 1930 and with A.G.R., sponsor's mark for Arthur George Rendell of Robert Pringle & Sons. Currently in working order, however, Grand Auctions does not guarantee the working order or accuracy of any watches sold. The inventor of the double cased hermetic watch is open to debate since there are two patents for the design, one published in the U.S. in 1918 by Frederick Gruen and one published in Switzerland in 1921 by Jean Finger. The patent number on this example also belongs to Finger and was published in April 1930. It contains a few improvements over his original design and is particularly rare. Hans Wildorf, co-founder and managing director of Rolex, bought some rights to the Finger patent and also produced double cased hermetic watches, although by 1930 he had lost interest in this design and was already producing the Rolex Oyster case. Thanks to David Boettcher of VintageWatchstraps.com for his help with researching this watch.