02 Sep 2008, 00:47
Actually, until I saw this listing, I had never heard the term "purse watch". Sounds sort of British... Anyway, the Grima watches were commissioned in late 1973 to early 1974, so this had to come later than that [most jewellry makers have a personal date code...usually a single letter...to date a piece; we would need to know the code of this specifc maker to properly interpret the "A" mark]. Absolutely, it is possible it was inspired by the Grima design. I thought the smaller Grima ingot-style designs were intended as pocket watches [though they could certainly have been carried by either a man or woman]. The calculator, on the other hand, was definitely a mans' watch. As for other manufacturers, until now, I thought Grima had been the only one...and all of his watches could be considered prototypes of a sort, as they were all one-of-a-kind [who knows; had LED watches hung on for a few more years, there might have been more Grimas]. I would be inclined to guess the same holds true here... Wonder where this has been hiding all these years?
Last edited by
bruce wegmann on 30 Oct 2008, 07:43, edited 1 time in total.