Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage Rifles watch fob by Schwaab S&S Co.?

Snowing here today, so a good day to stay in and take some pictures & organize some information (or I guess I could shovel).

I recently acquired a couple more watch fob's (from the same source), unlike all others I have seen these have a makers mark on the back. I have since tried to find out if they are authentic, vintage pieces.




This weekend at a Milwaukee area coin show I was able to show them to Tom Casper who has collected Schwaab Stamp & Seal items for many years. From emailed pictures he had been somewhat skeptical that they were genuine, they looked to 'new' and he had not seen that design before, after looking at them in person with a glass, his opinion now it that they are genuine vintage Schwaab S&S pieces. Others I have shown them to also feel they are authentic. They appear to be thinly plated and some of the high points appear to be worn through to copper, the surface is an alloy of mostly copper, about 85%, and zinc.

This is a link to a short article of his showing two of his Schwaab pieces, the bottom one has quite a lot of similarities in design at the top attachment to all the Savage Arms ones.
Article by Tom Casper & picture

Schwaab at one time was considered the largest manufacturer of watch fobs in the world. They were contracted to make medals for the 1904 St Louis Worlds Fair where Savage Arms had a large booth, so Savage Arms representatives would almost certainly have seen their products.
Schwaab company History (this can take awhile to load)

Here are links to a couple more examples of Schwaab watch fobs.
Closed eBay auction

This one has a markers mark that looks identical to the ones on the Savage Arms fobs.
J. I. Case fob with same makers mark

The slot for the straps were a secondary operation -
unfinished Panama-Pacific

According to Tom Casper the dies were the property of the customer and would only be kept at Schwaab at the request of the customers if they wished to continue a contract with Schwaab. He is from the Milwaukee area and has acquired some original tooling directly from the company.

Some more fobs without makers marks for comparison - some definitely original, but some still of questionable origin. The two with initials both have a 6% to 8% gold wash.

Gene it seems that some of these early Savage watch fobs were available for a mere 15 cents and could be had by remitting the amount to Savage Arms. See near bottom of Savage Ad. Tom

https://books.google.com/books?id=q...=savage%20arms%20watch%20fob&f=false

Here is one with Savage in the headband Tom

Here is an ad from June 1905 offering the Savage Arms Watch Fob. Tom

https://books.google.com/books?id=Q...savage%20arms%20watch%20fobs&f=false

Good stuff! The information proves mine to be a recent piece of flattery.