Birks Yellow Gold Filled Art

Creator: Birks
Case Material: Gold-filled
Movement: Manual Wind
Style: Art Deco
Place of Origin: Switzerland
Period: 1940-1949
Date of Manufacture: 1944
Condition: Excellent Wear consistent with age and use. It is worth noting that this watch only had a 12-month warranty when it was new. However, we are so confident of our workmanship and team that we offer an 18-month warranty on all our watches, even those over 100 years old.


FACTORY / HOUSE: Birks Watch Company
STYLE / REFERENCE: Challenger / Tonneau
METAL / MATERIAL: Yellow Gold Filled
CIRCA / YEAR: 1944
DIMENSIONS / SIZE: 36mm Length X 27mm Width
MOVEMENT / CALIBER: Manual Winding / 17 Jewels
DIAL / HANDS: Silvered with Arabic Numerals / Gilt Leaf Hands
ATTACHMENT / LENGTH: Leather, 16mm / Regular Length
WARRANTY: 18 months on the movement
Henry Birks and Sons was the Cartier of Canada. Everything in their stores were the finest made. This piece by Birks was called the Challenger and it is a very high grade movement produced in Switzerland for Birks. The watch is dependable an easy to service. It is a great unisex size and goes with all types of attire as well.
It has a wonderful engraving on the back, done by hand, it was a presentation for 25 years of service. This is finest of hand engraving which is no longer done.
This is a "vault find" watch, it has been locked up for nearly 50 years, which means it needs a service. We will give it a factory quality service by our finest watchmaker as part of the purchase price before it is shipped out to you. This will delay shipping for a few days of course.
By the way, the tonneau, or barrel shaped watch was first created by Louis Cartier in France around 1914. He saw barrels on the docks in Marseille and realized it would be a perfect shape for a watch. Hence, the name tonneau, French for barrel. Cartier was one of the first designers to "stylize" basic things around him. He looked at them and re-interpreted them by exaggeration, extension and "stylization."

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