English 18 Carat gold pocket watch with lever escapement Circa 1910

Gold monogrammed pocket watch by S. Smith & Son
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An English gentleman’s pocket watch with English lever escapement, circa 1910.
18 Carat gold, tiered polished and monogrammed case with gold dome and case maker’s punch mark FT (Frederick Thoms, London). Signed enamel dial, off white, with Roman radial hours, auxiliary seconds and blued spade hands. 3/4 plate movement, frosted, gilt and signed, with screwed chatons and screw compensation balance.
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Diameter: 49 mm
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Weight: 110 g
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Signed: S. Smith & Son, 9 Strand, London, Watchmakers to the Admiralty
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S.Smith & Son,
English watch manufacturer, Makers to the Admiralty
Watchmaker and jeweller Samuel Smith (born 1827) founded his family business in London in 1851 on the Newington Causeway.

In 1873 his son Samuel Smith jr. had his own business under the name Samuel Smith & Son in Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly 68. From 1899 the company became Samuel Smith & Son Ltd.

In addition to an extensive range of watches and clocks for private customers, Smith also manufactured reliable chronometers and was thus able to supply the Admiralty. Clocks were manufactured in-house, raw movements were purchased, established, and finished watches were sold from other manufacturers under their own name.

The company gained fame primarily through its excellent tourbillons and highly complicated pocket watches, almost all of which came from other manufacturers such as Nicole Nielsen, Mercer, Johannsen, Friedlander and other manufacturers in Switzerland. The well-known high quality watches were signed “Smith & Son, 9 Strand London” and bore the words Maker to the Admiralty and & the Indian Government.

Smith’s successor was his eldest son, Herbert SA Smith. Under his leadership, the company developed into a large manufacturing company with its research laboratories; The company remained family owned in the following generation: The son of Herbert SA Smith, Sir Alan Herbert Smith, expanded the product range to include automotive and aircraft instruments. The turn of the century was a general decline in British watchmaking; however, some British watchmakers were creating wonderful, highly complex watches just then, as if to say to the world, “Look, we’re still the best!”