Royal Flying Corps Watch

[Guest]

I posted this in the "other militaria" subforum, so apologies if it is in the wrong spot, I figured I could perhaps get more information from the Royal Flying Corps nuts

Hello there, this is my first post on your lovely forum- I'm a teacher in the USA and ran across this beautiful Royal Flying Corps marked Swiss pocketwatch. Runs well, and is Sterling Silver with original chain. Problem is after some online research, I have come up empty in terms of what make/model it is, specific year, and even who would have owned something like this. It seems very unique and one of a kind.

I understand the RFC did commission some manufacturers to make watches for them, but they were a lot less ornate, utilitarian, and marked with military identification marks. Any ideas from the fine folks here? I picked it up for 150.00USD, which is a tad high for a pocketwatch, but as I'm a WW1 buff of sorts, it has lots of intrinsic value to me and I will probably keep it till I go to Valhalla myself. 

Cheers, thanks for looking, and happy New Year! 

[pierssc]

 I can see there are loads of marks inside the front case cover in photo 3 but you don't seem to have photographed them - have a good look at those.  Those in photo 7 looks like they're in the back of the case.  If the watch is genuine, and sold through Britain between 1912-1918 (the lifespan of the RFC), there should be a date mark among them.

 

Have a look at http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/importmarks.php which details the sort of hallmarks (date, sponsor, assay office etc) that should be there if the watch was originally sold in the UK in the WW1 period.

 

The date marks you haven't photographed may confirm the age of the watch, but I'm afraid I would be a bit suspicious about this watch being what it seems.  It doesn't appear to be an issue watch, and if a private purchase, I don't see why anyone would have had a legitimate/plausible reason to mark the dial to the RFC.  It is far more likely that a private owner would have had the back of the case engraved with his initials  and maybe his corps or regiment - not the dial.

 

I'm not a watch expert by any means, though I do have a weighty book on British Military Timepieces and had a look through to see if I could see anything resembling yours - without success.  I would suggest that your best bet would be to direct your enquiry to the knowledgeable people at the Military Watch Resource forum http://www.mwrforum.net/forums/forum.php

 

Piers