Fine Swiss International Watch Company 18K gold Jones Caliber antique pocket
watch circa 1870
Heavy engraved case with gold and glazed cuvettes.
White enamel dial with blued steel hands. Fine 16 jewel nickel lever movement.
In 1868, an American engineer and watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones
(1841 to 1916) who had been a director of E. Howard and Co. , in Boston, then
America's leading watchmaking company, founded the International Watch Company
in Schaffhausen with the intention of combining the craftsmanship of the Swiss
with modern engineering technology from the U.S. to manufacture movements
and watch parts for the American market. He had financial difficulties and the
business passed into other hands around 1874. The first watches produced are to
Jones' design and are known as Jones Caliber.