This watch is fascinating due to its case construction and the social history associated to its personal engraving relating to WW2. 
 
We have never seen a Stainless Steel Borgel case of this older style, and neither have other collectors we know, including respected collector and researcher David Boettcher, who runs the ‘vintage watch straps’ website. 
 
In the 1930s, limited numbers of Borgel watches in these early 1900s style cases were still being manufactured. The cases of this style were made by spinning gold or silver, but doing this with stainless steel would require vastly different tooling. The Tauberts had moved on to their more modern design of Steel cases by the 1930s.
Consider too the addition of a gold-plated coin edge bezel, crown and pin set, this gives us a potentially unique design from the period.
 
The watch is estimated to date to the late 1930s and has a personal engraving to the rear dating to 1940. It is a beautiful Borgel case design, which is well sized at 33mm wide. It is formed of Stainless Steel with the gold-plated coin edge bezel, crown and pin-set. It has the bright white enamel dial, with the in-set sub-second dial and roman numeral hour markers. The hands are thermally blued and are of Breguet style. 
It has the polished finish to the case, which continues to the rear. There is a personal engraving to ‘Thomas H. Bewley’ dated ‘8th July 1940’. 
Inside the case is signed with the case makers initials ‘FB’, with the serial number 331807. It is marked as ‘Rustless steel’. The movement is a good quality manual wind calibre, marked Peerless by Stauffer & Co. It is an Eterna 520 base calibre. It has a beautiful level of finishing. It is keeping very good time.
 
Stauffer & Co. used movement from Eterna. Stauffer requested Eterna make changes in appearance to the top plate so that the movement would appear to be unique to them. The finishing is also superior to the standard Eterna finish. It has Geneva stripes with gold filled engravings and ruby coloured jewels. 
 
Stauffer, Son & Co. were an important Swiss watch manufacturer founded in 1830. They set up a London office to import watches from the Swiss factory and sell them into the British market and British Empire. This led them to become the largest importer of Swiss watches in Britain, bringing watches by Patek Philippe, Le Coultre, IWC, Fontainemelon and Eterna.
 
Thomas Henry Bewley needed a dependable watch, and his war time profession meant this Borgel cased Stauffer was a good choice.
 
Thomas Henry Bewley was a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service during the second world war.
 
He was a section officer of the Ipswich A.F.S, aged 36 in 1940, having served for 2 years. His civilian occupation was a Motor Tractor Salesman and he lived at 10 Willoughby Road, Ipswich.
 
He was recommended and received an award for gallantry from the ministry of home security Inter-departmental committee on Civil Defence. 
 
Bewley was in charge of the contingent at Purfleet on the 7th, 8th and early morning of the 9ct of September. “The contingent, under the leadership of Section Officer Bewley, worked ‘splendidly’. They remained at their posts even when enemy aircraft were overhead and anti-aircraft guns were in action”. Both bombing and machine-gunning were taking place during. 
He was recommended by the Commissioner for No. 4 Region, at the instance of the Chief Officers of the Southend and Chelmsford Fire Brigades. 
 
Please see the images as these compliment and aid the description provided below. A further condition report is below.
 
Dial: 
The dial is original and is good condition for the age. It is formed of enamel and has the bright white finish. It has a fine hairline mark at 5 O’clock. The railroad track is good with the clear Roman numerals. The sub-second dial signing is good and clear.
 
Hands: 
The hands appear original and are in good condition. They are of Breguet style and are thermally blued. They have a bright thermally blued tone which shines in the light. The sub-second hand is also original.
 
Glass: 
The crystal is a replacement which is in good condition with light marking.
 
Crown: 
The crown is original and is in good condition with light marking associated with age. There is no wear to the plated finish. It has the original screw holding it in place.
 
Case:
The case is formed of Steel and is in good original condition. It is the Borgel design with the coin edge screw bezel movement carrier and solid outer case. The bezel is in good condition with the defined coin edge and gold-plated finish. The gold plate has no wear. The case is good with the polished finish and light scratching. The lugs are original, good and thick. The gold tone pin set is good and original.
 
Caseback:
The solid case back is in good original condition with light surface scratching. It has the presentation engraving “Thomas H. Bewley 8th July 1940”.
 
Inside of case back:
The Inside of the case back is in good condition for the age, with the screw thread also good. It has slight marking with age. It has service etchings and the Borgel case marking. The serial number is clear, as is the steel signing.
 
Strap:
The watch is currently on a period leather single piece strap. This is not recommended long term as it will rub the engraving. It can be fitted to a new Condor two piece leather strap for fixed lugs.
 
Movement: 
The movement is a good quality manual wind calibre, marked Peerless by Stauffer & Co. It is an Eterna 520 base calibre. It has a jewel count of 17 and a frequency of 18,000 BPH. It has improved finishing with Geneve striping, ruby jewels and jewelled centre wheel
The service history is unknown, but the movement is in good condition and is well oiled. It’s keeping time to within +/-25 seconds a day, with an amplitude of 290 degrees and a beat error of 1.0m/s.
 
Case dimensions:
Case width: 32.8mm
Case width with crown: 37mm 
Case length: 33mm 
Case length lug to lug: 38mm
Case Depth: 10.3mm
Lug width: 12mm