Many watch cases have marks on them that can tell us more about the history of the watch. I have collected here a few of the ones I have encountered most frequently that I have been able to find out something about, I hope you find this useful:

Arthur Baume

AB is for Arthur Baume (1888 - 1923) Managing Director of Baume & Co. Baume & Company were the importer of
Longines watches to the UK and all of the British Commonwealth, and also watch makers in their own right.
They did a lot of pre-production work for Longines. Otherwise unmarked Logines watches from the early 20th century
often bear the mark "B & Co." for Baume & Co. next to the movement calibre number under the balance wheel.
Below is an interesting Longines Borgel case which bears the AB and B & Co marks as well as the FB for Francois Borgel.



Francois Borgel

Francois Borgel of Geneva registered his "marque de fabrique" or makers mark, in Geneva in March 1887. He patented his famous watch case design on 28 October 1891 with the Swiss "Brevet" or Patent, number 4001, and in the UK on 24th November 1891 under Patent number 20,422. The Borgel case was an early attempt to make wrist watches resistant to dust and moisture. It is a one piece case, where the movement and bezel are mounted on a threaded ring which screws into the case from the front.Manufacture of Borgel cases continued after the death of Francois Borgel in 1912, initially under the direction of his daughter Louisa, and later by Taubert & Fils. Taubert & Fils was one of the finest Geneva-based case makers and specialized in water-resistant cases. They worked with many firms, including Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. The pictures below show Borgel's mark with the key symbol of Geneva, and a Borgel cased watch.


Arthur George Rendell

The AGR initials, usually seen with dots in between as A·G·R, are for Arthur George Rendell of Clerkenwell Road, London who are recorded as importers of Swiss watches from 1907.



George Stockwell

GS is the mark of George Stockwell, described in Culme’s "Directory of Gold & Silversmiths...etc." as an "importer of foreign watches". Culme also provides some details of Stockwell’s firm, Stockwell & Co Ltd, who were listed in Birmingham in 1912 as ’agents to Messageries Nationales Express and Messageries Anglo-Suisse, continental, foreign and general shipping agents, special tariff for small consignments abroad".

The picture below left shows Stockwell's mark on a watch with a London import mark (the inverted Omega on a crossed oval cartouche (the oval signifying silver as opposed to a rectangular cartouche for gold) a .925 mark showing the purity as "Sterling") and 1915 "u" date stamp. The picture below right shows Stockwell's mark on a watch with a Birmingham import mark (the triangle in an oval cartouche, with again the oval cartouche signifying silver) and a 1918 "t" date stamp. You can see that the block sticking up at the top of the GS cartouche varies considerably in width from the narrow one on the London mark to the much wider one on the Birmingham mark.



The importers mark and the case makers mark are often seen together. For instance, below left is a picture of a case with the AGR mark and also the FB mark, and below right is a case with the GS and FB marks together.



I hope you have found this guide helpful. If you have then I would be grateful if you would register a positive vote for it. If you haven't found it helpful for some reason, or if you think that there is something wrong or that could be improved, then please let me know. Thanks! Regards - David