Description: Platinum cased super slim pocket watch. Bezel set with brilliant cut diamonds. Plain platinum snap back, inside marked with company info, case number ‘44668’ and case material declaration. Two tone white/silver dial with vertical brushing, engraved and black enamelled railway minute track, black printed company info underneath ’12’. Hour markers set with brilliant cut encrusted, platinum letters forming ‘GEORGE SOMNES’. White metal spade hands, no second hand. Very high quality movement with swan neck regulator and compensation balance, movement decorated with ‘Geneva stripes’. Movement engraved with ‘Paul Ditisheim’, ‘Depollier New York’, ‘5 adjustments’ and production number ‘405913’.
Additional Info:
The watch was build in Switzerland, including the platinum case and imported by Charles Depollier in New York. The watch was a special commission for George Somnes, as indicates the ‘name dial’. The style of the manufacture of the platinum letters is contemporary to the manufacture of the bezel as are the treatment of the diamonds.
As only in the best quality watches of the era, the minute track dial is engraved and then filled with black enamel. Wrist watch dials of the best manufacturers, such as Niton, Vacheron Constantin and later Patek Philippe will use the same method.
This highly sophisticated watch once belonged to Hollywood director (Paramount) George Somnes. He directed movies with important film stars such as Cary Grant, during the pre-code era.
George Somnes, born George Carleton Flye (7.7.1887 – 8.2.1956) was an American theatre director, producer and film director. In 1911, Somnes’ first Broadway appearance was in An Old New Yorker by Harrison Rhodes and Thomas A. Wise and produced by William A. Brady. He then went to London and was the first American to gain prominence in the Old Vic Theater, with his interpretation of King Claudius in Hamlet.
When the United States entered World War I, Somnes left England and went into the Army, where he became a top Seargent in the field artillery.
In the 1920s Somnes was a member of the old Stuart Walker Stock Company in Indianapolis and later involved with the Civic Theater there. From 1929 to 1934, Somnes was in Hollywood at Paramount and directed stars including Sylvia Sidney, Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper and George Raft. His film directing career included: The Girl in 419, Midnight Club and Torch Singer in 1933 and Wharf Angel in 1934, co-directing with William Cameron Menzies. On stage he directed productions such as the drama Reprise (1935), the comedies Sun Kissed (1937) and The Greatest Show on Earth (1938), the melodrama Brown Danube (1939), and the drama Land’s End (1946).
Pictures credit: Yves Müller – http://www.visiuns.com
Antiquarian Horology 