wrist-watches become popular in the 1920s and quite strangely they were first popular with women at the turn of the century. Men preferred their pocket watches until the first world war.
During the first world war soldiers needed access to their watches while their hands were full. They were given wristwatches, called 'trench watches', which were made with pocketwatch movements, so they were large and bulky and had the crown at the 12 o'clock position like pocket-watches.
After the war pocketwatches went out of fashion and by 1930 the ratio of wrist- to pocketwatches was 50 to 1.
You are right. It is hard to make out the marks. This lovely old timepiece is in need of some tender loving care.
In the watch world, they call this service, clean, oil and adjust. COA. The watchmaker should be competent in the older analogue timekeepers.
