Swiss 14 carat yellow gold Art Deco pocket watch Circa 1930

Gold keyless pocket watch by IWC
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A very fine Swiss, 14 carat yellow gold Art Deco keyless pocket watch, circa 1930.
A solid case, bow and bezel are decorated with black polychrome enamel. A gilt dial with Arabic numerals, a subsidiary dial for the constant seconds and yellow gold hands. Fine IWC bar movement with fine adjusting device gold chatons and lever escapement. Dial and movement signed.
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Diameter: 48 mm
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Signed: International Watch Company  Schaffhausen
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Spotted dial
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International Watch Company Schaffhausen (IWC) was founded in 1868 by Florentine Ariosto Jones (1841–1916), an American engineer and watchmaker from Boston, Massachusetts, who had been a director of E. Howard & Co, Boston, America’s leading watchmaking company at the time. He established the company with the intention of combining modern engineering technology from the U.S. with Swiss craftsmanship to manufacture high-quality watches exclusively for the American market. Then, wages in Switzerland were relatively low, although there was a ready supply of skilled watchmaking labour mainly carried out by people in their homes. Jones encountered opposition to his plans in French-speaking Switzerland. People feared for their jobs and the work they did at home because he wanted to open a factory. In 1850, the town of Schaffhausen was in danger of being left behind in the Industrial Age. At this stage, watch manufacturer and industrialist Johann Heinrich Moser built Schaffhausen’s first hydroelectric plant and laid the cornerstone for future industrialization. He probably met Jones in Le Locle and showed great interest in his plans. Together, they laid the foundations for the only watch manufacturer in north-eastern Switzerland: the International Watch Company in Schaffhausen.