![]() Either no one has taken this on, or they have not published it yet. There are many casemekers in Switzerland today and they may be old enough to have records from eh late 1800's. The Swiss maker's records are not usually available so there is not much left of this once flourishing trade. Since they were wholesale they probably had little public presence. In Switzerland the watches were sold cased or as movements going to the US or UK to be cased there. In England they were wholesale but the strong Guild resulted in extensive records which have been codifed. Their work was sold retail so they worked to establish their names. In the US, case makers are fairly well documented. Since their trade was wholesale they had no need to make themselves known to the public. Their weaker hall marking system resluted in less documentation and by the late 1800's the watch manuacturers were getting all the glory and no one paid much attention to the case maker. My surmise is that the Swiss casemaking industry was a lot like the English but that the watch maker's records are less available. Today, most Swiss makers at least assemble and finish their cases if they don't make them entirely. I have not been able to get any information to identify it. I have seen what like a maker's mark on some Swiss Henry Capt watches. I suspect that Pateck Phillipe and Vacheron and Conbstantin as well as the several Audemars made their cases in house for the watch they sold complete using goldsmiths in ther employ. IF so the JJ may be the casemaker's mark. It is also possble the Audemars made most of the watches for Jules Jurgensen as ebuaches and Jurgensen may have cased them. Since Audemars made the whole thing if it had a JJ Audemars or Kreigel signed it so. The cuvettes had to fit together well so Kriegel must have made most of the case. This suggests that the cases were bought in and fitted to the watch by Audemars. There is no case entry but it lists "3 cuvettes, crystal" (whether the crystal was a fourth part or one of the cuvettes was for the crystal was not clear) made by Kriegel. ![]() Zantke's "Louis Benjamin Audemars His Life and Work" shows a page from the Audemars workbook for a watch they made for Jurgensen. The only problem with this theory is Zantke's book. For example Jurgensen Cases have a typical JJ which looks a lot like a maker's mark. It simply mentions the number of casemakers in Geneva in the Early 1800's.įrom what I have seen, I believe that most manufacturers employed their own goldsmiths and they signed the manufacturer's name. I found some passing references in Jaquet and Chauis "Technique and History of The Swiss Watch". ![]()
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