Vintage Special: Sheffield Allsport Hand-wound Watch
The latest addition to my vintage collection is a hand-wound watch signed Sheffield Allsport.
Manufactured in the 1960s, the Sheffield Allsport is a skin diving watch. It regularly appears on online auction websites. After searching various auction portals, I found that the original Sheffield Allsport model features an external diving bezel. However, the watch shown in this article doesn’t have a bezel. The dial is genuine, but its case, case-back, strap and hands are after-market. The case material is chrome plated brass.
After realizing Frankenstein nature of this timepiece, my immediate attempt was to verify the genuineness of its mechanism. This timepiece features a steel screw-in case-back and after removing it I found a mechanical hand-wound movement signed EB 8810.
EB 8810 is an affordable pin lever calibre produced by Ebauches Bettlach SA (Fabrique d’Ebauches de Bettlach), a historic Swiss movement manufacturer founded by Eduard Kummer.
In addition to the caliber number (8810) and manufacturer emblem, the movement beating inside this Sheffield Allsport watch features inscriptions like SWISS, 17 JEWELS, SAXONY WATCH Co. and UFX.
Fixed with two screws and floating above the ratchet wheel is a metal plate with inscription Saxony Watch Co. As Saxony was a brand of Sheffield Watch Company, I assume that the movement is authentic.
EB 8810 is basically a hand-wound pin lever calibre, produced with or without jewel bearings. It powers three centre-hands (hour, minute and seconds) and the date function. Its balance frequency is 18,000 vibrations per hour. As per the inscriptions on the movement plate, this Sheffield Allsport watch should have 17 jewels, among them four are visible from the rear side. I think this movement’s upper balance jewel has been lost.
Finally, the letters UFX inscribed on the balance cock represents the US import code of Sheffield Watch Company.
On online auction sites you will come across some other versions of the Sheffield Allsport vintage watch. Many of them feature the Bettlach EB 8810 movement with one jewel and a metal plate with Sheffield Watch Co. inscription. Some examples house Ronda manual-winding pin lever movements like RL 1015, RL 1215 or RL 1217.
This timepiece has a black dial with a date window at 3 o’clock. Appears to be genuine, it has large hour-markers and long minute indexes between each marker. The dial also spotlights three Arabic numerals, respectively aligned with 12, 6 and 9 indices.
The hour-markers have luminous material and offer glow in the dark. All the three hands appear to be aftermarket as they do not match with the original Sheffield Allsport watch hand-set.
With the two-position crown located at 3H, we can wind the movement and set the time and date. There is no dedicated date-setting position for crown; hence it is very time consuming to set the date.
Below the 12H numeral appears the brand name (Sheffield) in cursive font and model name (ALLSPORT).
On lower dial, you can see the words T SWISS MADE A. The letter T at the left side of 7H marker represents Tritium, a luminescent material used on the hands and indexes. I have no idea about the meaning of A found at the right side of 5H marker. Incidentally, some Sheffield ALLSPORT vintage watches feature J or M1 in place of A.
From the SWISS MADE label on the dial and the import code (UFX) on the movement, we can assume that this timepiece was made in Switzerland and then exported to the USA.
The lower dial part also features the inscriptions SHOCK RESISTANT and WATERPROOF. It seems that Sheffield had produced ALLSPORT with two water-resistance ratings: 5 ATM and 10 ATM.
The versions with 10 ATM (100 meters) usually display the water-resistance rating on the dial. The model shown in this review appears to be a variant with 5 ATM (50 meters) rating.
About Sheffield watch brand
With two independently managed companies in the USA and Switzerland, Sheffield was a distributor and producer of affordable mechanical watches. According to the details available in the public domain, the New York based Sheffield Watch Corporation had managed importing and distributing of watches and movements in the USA. For manufacturing watches, a company named Sheffield Watch SA was set up at Muttenz, a municipality in the canton of Basel-Country, Switzerland.
In addition to Sheffield, they produced and distributed mechanical timepieces under other brand names like Saxony, Sheraton and Norbee. Sadly, both firms closed down the activities during the so-called quartz crisis in the 1970s.
Before concluding this article, I would like to inform that Sheffield brand has been revived by an enthusiast named Jay Turkbas. Inspired by the historic creations, the new company offers models like ALLSPORT and QL1. Made in China, these modern Sheffield watches are powered by Japanese movements.
