1920s 9ct gold round vintage ‘Services Airman’ watch
Date: 1928
Case: 9ct gold, 31mm
Movement: Manual wind
Dial: White enamel, black Roman numerals
Lugs: 14mm
A 1928, 9ct gold vintage ‘Services Airman’ wristwatch. The case measures 31mm in diameter, with 14mm lugs. The case is signed JW, marked 9ct gold and numbered. The fine quality Swiss Made, manual wind movement has 15 jewels, signed Arcadia. The white enamel dial has black Roman numerals, with outside Arabic twenty four hours, with a subsidiary seconds dial and fine blued steel ‘poires paris’ hands. The dial is signed Services Airman above the centre.
The Arcadia brand originated in Fleurier, a small village in Val-de-Travers in Switzerland. Jules-Samuel Jequier (watchmaker) born 1835 in Fleurier and joined Bovet after training as a jewel-cutter and quickly climbed up the company ladder. In 1858 he founded Arcadia and positioned it as the top-of the-line among the five watchmaking brands of the Fleurier Watch Company, a manufacturer established in 1915. The company specialised in jewel cutting and designing watch calibres. Fleurier Watch Company supplied movements for over a century to many watch brands.
The Services Watch Co., Ltd. was founded in Leicester by a Frank Liquorish in 1926/27.
