From Schaffhausen to Paris to Brazil
The Incredible Provenance of an IWC Calibre Pocket Watch from 1892
August 2002
Some
watches have a story to tell. I recently became the owner of a rare IWC
pocket watch which is beautiful and interesting in its own right. The
story behind it, however, tells how a watch traveled throughout the world,
changed hands out of pride and debt, and was owned by colonial land barons and
priests in the Brazilian jungle.
International Watch Company has always been known for its fine pocket watches. Its most produced pocket watch movement, the Calibre 52, was manufactured in several variations from 1894 to 1940. Essentially the same movement, called the "IWC Calibre", was first made with minor variations from 1888 to 1893. Perhaps no movement has defined a watch company more than the IWC Calibre
I therefore was interested when a friend told me about a dealer who had a beautiful IWC pocket watch with an ornate "drum" case. The watch became more interesting because it was accompanied by a letter from IWC in 1970. Written in French by IWC in Schaffhausen, the letter traces the sale of the watch to a dealer in Paris in 1893. The watch had to be special, because the letter documented that it was one of only twenty that were made. For an excerpt from that letter, please see the end of this article.
The movement was not one out of twenty, of course --it was the thick case that was so special. Indeed, the engraving was exceptional. This was not any mass-produced object, but rather one with great handwork. The movement itself, however, was a not easily found 19-ligne IWC Calibre, made in 1892.
The dealer told me that he had bought the watch in Brazil, where he traveled regularly. He had known of the watch for about ten years, but the owner, a Brazilian, had refused to sell it. It was a family heirloom, but finally the owner relented. When he sold the watch, the owner relayed the story of the watch in Portuguese. What follows is an approximation in English of his history behind this watch:
"Colonel
Jose Estevan Souza Rosa, my grandfather, was a wealthy farmer in the Forest
MIneira Zone, and owned several lands, sugar cane plantations and coffee
in Sao Joao Nepomucento and Guriciema.
"At the beginning of century, a Portuguese neighbor, also a farmer, named Antonio Dias, told my grandfather that he needed 600,000 reis (ancient money), but he was unsure that he could repay that amount in his lifetime. After several years, he was unable to pay his debt but, being an honest man, he went to the farm of Jose Estevan, binging with him a cart with eight bulls and an International Watch. He came into the living room and said 'I think I am going to die before I pay my debts, so I bring eight bulls and this watch of high estimation, that came from Paris'.
"My grandfather initially refused the offer, but Antonio Dias insisted, on the condition that he could reclaim the watch if he repaid his debt. He then lived for five more years, and died in 1913 but he never repaid the debt.
"After my grandfather's death, his sons and daughters decided that the watch should be used by one brother, a preacher named Padre Pedro Rosa de Toldeo, who was in service of the church in Rio Casca Ponte Nova, Jacarai, Vila Galvao, among other cities. In 1959 Padre Pedro, my uncle, came to my house. He said that he was old and would like a nephew who would care and conserve the watch as an "esteeme". I said 'It is time now, uncle, let me take care of the watch'. He replied that he had no watch to wear, so I took the wristwatch off of my wrist and gave it to him. He was happy and gave me the watch that belonged to him."
That is the end of what he wrote. Some stories deserve to live on and there is nothing more to say.
