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Rare, Rare, Harrods/Fortis Water Resistant Dive Watch WW1, Nickel

About the Item

For those who have stopped by my vintage neighborhood you have seen a wide variety of American Vintage Watches from 1880 to 1930. My sweet spot is the WW1/Trench Watch era. You see, it was during this time in watch history that Wrist Watches were born, mostly to be used as a time keeping tool for different militaries. The early “slang” expression was “wristlet, essentially a watch tied to the wrist with leather straps. If you are a Trench Watch aficionado, this is a must have. The history on this watch is spotty at best. The rarity of this watch is in the production numbers, this was only made for the UK market, the movement was manufactured and the watch assembled by Fortis, a giant of innovation within watch circles How would one describe this offering? Well, rare and very hard to source. This is the epitome of a British WW1, Trench Watch made exclusively for the UK. How rare is this? Google Fortis Aquatic Watch, Aquatic Watch, Harrods Aquatic Watch. You are lucky to get one page of historical data. This is what I have completed on the watch. Complete mechanical service February 2024 New leather band What is original? Dial and hands are original Case is untouched, what you see is the condition I received it I have not polished the case,. A little history. Please take the opportunity to thank David Bottecher, his knowledge and his extensive writing have given context to Trench Watches. This auction is for a very rare and sought after Fortis Aquatic Trench Watch in a nickel “Hermetic” case. This is a wartime watch. Interestingly this watch is marked 'Aquatic' on the dial. Watch measures a decent 36mm diameter, without the crown, and it's quite a deep watch at 11.76mm. In my opinion the overall condition of this timepiece is excellent and it wears superbly on the wrist as well as being an important piece of history and a very important and rare surviving trench watch that demonstrates the evolution and development of the waterproof watch case. This was an expensive watch at the time and would have been worn by a very high ranking officer. Large circular 'Aquatic' mark and also stamped 'Brevet' with a serial number 936 This a rare opportunity to buy an exceptional timepiece that may never come up for sale again. There is very little information on these watches and no indication that any have ever been sold other than the one from vintagewatchstraps. This example is in excellent condition and seems to have extra marks such as 'Brevet' and also the 'Aquatic' mark on the dial which give it an edge and a sign of quality. Almost certainly retailed at the Harrods store.   Fortis "Aquatic" waterproof watch An interesting early waterproof wristwatch is the Fortis Aquatic shown in the picture here. I haven't got round to cleaning this watch and took a quick photograph for this article because the dial retains a lot of radioactive radium paint and I don't want to disturb things until I am ready to do a full clean and restoration on the watch. The waterproof case of the Aquatic watch was invented in 1915 by two Swiss gentlemen, Paul Ernest Jacot and Auguste Tissot. Swiss and British patents were granted for the invention. The Aquatic watch was made by the Fortis Watch company of Grenchen in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. The watch was sold with no name on the dial and simply Aquatic stamped inside the case back, and also with Rolex and Zenith brand names. The design of the Aquatic watch was the subject of Swiss patent CH 71715. The inventors Paul Ernest Jacot and Auguste Tissot applied for a patent on the design on 27 August 1915 and the patent was granted and published on 1 February 1916. The title of the patent was "Montre avec emboîtage hermétique du mouvement", i.e. a watch with a hermetic case for the movement. The same two gentlemen, describing themselves as manufacturers of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, applied for a British patent for the same design, which was granted as British patent 101,345 on 28 August 1917, one year to the day after the application was made. This delay was of little consequence because in both cases the priority date, the date from which the invention was protected by the patent, was 27 August 1915. It appears that Jacot and Tissot must have licensed the patent to the Swiss watchmaker Fortis, because all of the watches with this case design carry the name "Aquatic", a name that had been registered by Fortis so that no one else could use it. The Aquatic case in detail The figure reproduced from the patent shows cross sections through the case. The principal waterproof features are that the case has a screw back, no front bezel, and gasket seals for the glass and for the winding stem where it enters the case. Doing away with the front bezel means that there is one less joint through which water can enter the case, but the movement has to be inserted from the rear of the case, which means that the normal arrangement of case screws cannot be used to hold the movement in place. The glass is also inserted from the case back. The glass is held in place by a ring labelled j in the figures from the patent. Fig.3 shows how a screw p with a conical end is screwed through this ring and the cone bears against an internal step in the case. When the screw is tightened its conical end bearing on the step forces the ring upwards, pressing the glass against a gasket labelled "m", sealing the glass against the case. The movement is held in place by the two screws labelled "r" in the figure operating on the two bars labelled "o". I have put a red ring around one of these pairs of screws and bars in Fig. 1. The bars bear against the internal step in the case and, when the screws are tightened, act as levers holding the movement into the case. The screws r are easily visible in the photograph below of the movement together with the slots in the ring j that the bars pass through. The use of the separate j ring to hold the glass in place seems at first glance an unnecessary complication, but it has the benefit that the movement can be removed by undoing the two screws r, when it drops out from the back of the case without disturbing the glass and its gasket seal. The opening in the side of the case where the stem enters is sealed by a gasket "w" in a cup shaped feature "u". To achieve a seal the crown is clamped down onto the gasket by the spring strip "y". This is missing from my watch, but you can see the two attachment points on the side of the case, one the tube "x" where the root of the strip was hinged to the case, the other a snapping piece "1" where the end of the strip "z" snaps into place. The stem sealing gasket was the Achilles heel of this design. It is missing on my watch and James Dowling told that Zenith & Rolex also used this case design, but there does seem to be an inherent weakness in the stem/crown design as both the Rolex pieces I have in my collection are missing both these rather essential components. The Rolex branded watches that I have seen with this case have the same movement as mine and it seems that both Rolex and Zenith purchased complete watches from Fortis. Selling the Aquatic watch The advert by Harrods reproduced here from The Sketch of March 1917 is interesting, it says that Harrods test each watch in water for 14 days before putting it on sale, and that they guarantee it for three years. The watch was available with a nickel case at two pounds and ten shillings, or a silver case at four pounds and four shillings. The price difference is quite significant, the silver case nearly doubles the price! My watch has a nickel case so it is not hallmarked and cannot be dated from the hallmark date letter. The Harrods advert says that the Aquatic watch was specially made for Harrods and could be be obtained anywhere else in the Kingdom. This situation didn't last, in 1917 the company of Lawrence & Laurence Ltd., Watchmakers to the Admiralty, were advertising the Aquatic watch. The price was higher than Harrods at three pounds for a nickel case and five pounds for a silver case. This was an expensive wristwatch at the time. Fortis Watch Co. Fortis was founded in 1912 by Walter Vogt in Grenchen, Switzerland. Grenchen is in the predominantly German speaking part of Switzerland, the French name for the city is Granges. Grenchen is well known for its watch industry. Vogt was joined by a partner and for a short time the company traded as Vogt & Rüfli. In May 1914 the name of the company was changed to "Vogt & Cie, Fortis Watch Co, fabrication d'horlogerie Granges." I have many other trench watches listed. Mostly American, some with rare high caliber movements. Please check out the images thoroughly. The images make up an essential part of the description. Happy to answer any questions or requests for images. This is a very handsome and exceptionally rare piece and a wartime watch to boot. I think it could be a bit of a 'Holly Grail' for trench watch/wartime watch collectors I will be listing other trench watches and there are many pocket watch movements listed and a lot more watches and movement to go on over the next few weeks.
  • Case Material:
  • Strap Material:
    Leather
  • Case Shape:
    Round
  • Movement:
  • Case Dimensions:
    Height: 1.42 in (36 mm)Width: 1.42 in (36 mm)Diameter: 0.44 in (11 mm)
  • Style:
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1915*
  • Condition:
    Repaired: Compolete mechanical servicing. Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    Raleigh, NC
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: Harrods1stDibs: LU3149222548152
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