Rockville Watch Co.

Honest John

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Jun 15, 2005, 11:25:24 AM6/15/05

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Old Paul at the emporium has just bought the estate of a watchmaker named
Latimer and got about 50 very old watches. One of them is a real puzzler, a
key wind silver pocket watch named Rockville, 18 size, large balance staff
mounted on back plate opposite of the main mov't., and the numbers 952406.
There is a lot of nice engraving on the balance staff frame, one is a lake
scene with swan in the water and the other scene is a large fish or dragon
under the water.

Can someone shed some light on this mystery? I, and old Paul, would
appreciate it.

Honest John

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Jun 15, 2005, 12:51:12 PM6/15/05

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"Honest John" <hones...@centurytel.net> wrote in message
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"Rockville Watch"

Nevermind, I guess my first Google search wasn't right. I got the answer
now; it's a Swiss "fake". Good quality though !

Noah Little

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Jun 15, 2005, 1:10:01 PM6/15/05

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Honest John wrote:
> Nevermind, I guess my first Google search wasn't right. I got the answer
> now; it's a Swiss "fake". Good quality though !

Is it a Swiss fake, or a fake Swiss?
--
Noah

Jack Denver

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Jun 15, 2005, 4:23:10 PM6/15/05

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I believe the former. Believe it or not, once upon a time in the 19th
century, the US was the world's dominant maker of precision (factory made)
watches - Elgin, Waltham, etc. The Swiss industry was in the position now
occupied by China - a low labor cost country whose industry was less
mechanized and advanced. In order to compete in the US market, the Swiss
gave their watches American sounding names such as "Rockville" (whereas
today semi-legit Chinese brands are called "Steinhausen", etc.) Sometimes
the Swiss would make outright fakes of American watches and label them as
"Waltham", etc. Now the wheel of karma has turned and the Swiss have to
suffer the fate that they once inflicted on others - having their products
faked. The content labeling laws that require all imports to be labeled
"Made In ____" were passed partly in response to these Swiss
soundalike/lookalikes.

"Noah Little" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
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John Woods

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Jun 15, 2005, 10:12:04 PM6/15/05

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Honest John,

I have a watch movement identical to yours with the same serial number,
952406. I call it a fake American.

--
John Woods
NAWCC 13571
AWCI 8398

"Honest John" <hones...@centurytel.net> wrote in message
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John S.

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Jun 17, 2005, 10:00:44 AM6/17/05

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The "homeage" watches that are so popular now have a long history.
Rockville and many others tried to pass their watches off as american
looking watches 100 years ago and Erken, Apogaum and others try to
emulate the look of certain modern watches.

Some of those old swiss-american watches could make an interesting
collection at the right price.

Honest John

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Jun 17, 2005, 12:41:30 PM6/17/05

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"John S." <hjs...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1119016844....@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

"Some of those old swiss-american watches could make an interesting
collection at the right price."

I totally agree with you !