Two Antique Silver Swiss Pocket Watches, One 0.800 Sterling and One 0.935 Sterling. Both with chains and numerous markings. 

Longest: 1 1/2 x 17 in. 

#2578 . 

A fineness mark of 0.935 accompanied by a Swiss hallmark comprising three bears, one small bear above two large bears, shows that the case was hallmarked in Switzerland after 1887. In 1887 the British Merchandise Marks Act introduced new requirements for imported gold and silver watch cases, stating that all cases must bear no marks at all, or be hallmarked either in a British assay office or in their country of origin. The Act also stipulated that there must be no words on the watch movement or case that might imply the watch had been made in Britain. As a result of this Act British customs would not allow the importation of watches with silver cases marked with either of the legal Swiss standards of silver, 0.800 or 0.875, since they were now below the British legal standard for the term “sterling.” Any words in English would be added after the importation of the watch, so Swiss manufacturers also had to adjust to no longer putting “Fine Silver” or “Sterling Silver” on the cases, nor could they even write any words in English on the regulator. A Swiss Federal Decree in 1881 had allowed silver watch cases of 0.935 fineness that were marked “sterling silver” to be assayed and hallmarked in a Swiss Bureau de Contrôle, but in order to avoid any potential future issue even with the use of simple numbers and decimals, the hallmark with three bears was created. All minutes of the meetings of the Federal Council that were requested by various British assay offices in the following years were handwritten in German “Sütterlin” script, and the Swiss routinely refused to translate them, which is honestly an extremely funny way to strike back at the British for the 1887 Act.