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Very Rare Silver Longines Borgel Military Trench Watch c1915
Longines calibre 13.34 18 jewel movement in a silver Borgel case with swing lugs. With an extract of the archives from Longines dating it to March 1915.
Unusually it has an original black enamel dial, this is one of the earliest examples of a black military dial, I have not found an earlier example than this. It still retains some of the original lume.The hands are original cathedral style and they appear to have been relumed at some point in its life.
The crown is original but the small seconds hand has been replaced.
The movement is Longines top of the range pinset calibre 13.34 with 18 jewels set in screwed chatons instead of the more common 15 jewel model.
It is correctly marked B&Co for Arthur Baume and Co who were Longines UK agents. Recently serviced it keeps excellent time and is currently running within 10 seconds per day with amplitude of 275 degrees and zero beat error.
The silver Borgel case is one of the first case designs to be water resistant. The case is relatively large for this period at 35.5mm in diameter without the crown, the swing lugs are also original.
Marked internally with the AB mark for Arthur Baume, the FB mark for Francois Borgel and the British hallmark date letter t for 1914-15 along with numerous watchmakers service marks.
It has a new superbly accurate and period correct strap supplied by vintagewatchstraps.com.