My Grandfather received this watch on his 25th anniversary with Western Publishing. He wore it every day until he passed in 1999. I inherited it. The hands were rusty and the paint on the dial was flaking off, and it wasn't running. I had it "restored" in 2002. Unfortunately they painted the whole dial surface this silver color instead of the cream color that was originally there, covering the outer area where the numbers are, which was gold colored, and they discarded the original hands, which were pent along the center to match the indices. The case is 14K gold. I believe it is a "His Excellency" but I am not sure of the model.
What a wonderful heirloom from your father! A great choice by his company for his retirement gift. It looks like a His Excellency to me as well. The closest I can find is the "H". Not sure if it matches the original dial color or not. This is from the 1958 LineBook
In reply to What a wonderful heirloom… by Kathy L.
What a wonderful watch and heirloom! Thank you for sharing it. I think I found your grandfather's watch in the 1958 and 1958-1959 Linebooks. Case, gold content, lugs and dial all appear to be a match. Illustration shows the sunburst outer dial and a slight color difference between inner and outer dial. Is this the way it was, or how you remember it before the dial refinish?
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12 and 6 appear on the photo, but are washed out. If I'm correct in ID, this is a first for the database.
1958 His Excellency "H"
In reply to What a wonderful watch and… by neetstuf-4-u
I have a similar His Excellency given in 1962 at my HS graduation by my father. Some differences: the hands are pinched near the pivot, the lines on the face are concentric instead of radial, thew words "water proof" are printed over the sub-hand, and there is a small groove on the lugs. Mine is gold plated, not solid.
Thank you everyone for responding. Now that I see the photo, I think it is correct in that the painted area was the outside edge and the center was gold color. Western took the 25th anniversary of employment very seriously and gave out nice gifts commensurate with your position at the company. My Grandfather worked there until 1967 and retired at that point.
I wish I had known more when I first had this done. I would have had them leave the dial and hands alone. They said they would "make it as good as new". Now that I have started to seriously get into watches I know better. Since the damage is already done, I am interested in having this restored correctly with the proper colors and hands. Does anyone have a recommendation for that, or know where I can at least get the hands? I may be happy enough with that. Thank you.
Thank you Andersok. I remember the dial being 2 tone. There are some 1958 His Excellency watches on Ebay right now that have 2 tone dials with white in the center and gold around the perimeter where the numbers are. I actually think it looked like the one pictured in the post above, with the white part around the edge. I remember it being cream colored, not stark white. Maybe it faded due to age. Im still kicking myself for letting them do that to the dial.
In reply to Thank you Andersok. I… by acameff
Good morning everyone. Thank you for all of your help with this so far. I had a question since you are all really knowledgeable about these watches. I have been looking online and I found a 10BM movement for sale at a very reasonable price that appears to use the same hands as the original ones from my watch. They need to be re plated but that isn't the worst thing in the world. I know that the holes in the hands can vary in size between movements. Can anyone tell me if the 10BP and 10BM utilize the same hands?