J.W. Benson had their premises bombed flat during the blitz, and this is an early post war tank model with a gold case.
HOW DO WE DATE THIS WATCH?
From the Birmingham hallmark on the inside of the case back we can accurately date this watch to being assayed in 1946.
CONDITION
Given that their London workshops were destroyed by the Luftwaffe, this is a nice sign that things were trying to get back to normal. With no equipment to work on the parts were bought in to J.W. Benson’s specification from trusted partners they had worked with before the war. The 9k gold case was made by Denisson, which is in good shape with straight fixed bars. There are marks on the lugs which we have not tried to polish off. These have the nickname tank, as they resemble the shape of the WW1 tanks that were on the battlefields of northern France and Belgium. The crystal has some scratches, and the dial does show patina but it should do after all these years. The dial doesn’t have any radium lume on it. The movement is marked ref. 374a, but looks to be made by Cyma from their calibre 419 for J.W. Benson. It is a fifteen jewel manual wind with sub seconds, and it is ticking nicely. The inside of the case back shows a lot of watchmakers service marks. The leather strap is new.
This watch will be supplied with our branded presentation box and our Certificate of Authenticity.
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SIZE
Width with crown mm
Width without crown 25.2 mm
Between lugs 16 mm
Lug to lug length 37.3 mm
Case Thickness 8.3mm
All sizes are approximate. The watch is photographed on a wrist of 190mm/7.5 inches.
Included with this watch is a 3 month guarantee and free delivery to UK addresses. If you live outside the UK we can still deliver to most countries. Please see our Worldwide Shipping information, or Contact Us. Payment can be made by most credit or debit cards, bank transfer or PayPal.
From 1st September 2021 we will be planting a tree for every watch we sell, working with the International Tree Foundation (Est 1922) to make this business positive on carbon. By buying anything pre owned you are effectively reusing what already exists, but this takes it further and makes us feel good.