Photographs courtesy of eBay seller tedstimepieces. Compiled from images supplied with the August 2026 eBay listing.

Grassie & Co. is a private label in Seth Thomas 18-size Model 5. The seller of this particular Grassie & Co. pocket watch reported that the watch was obtained from a private estate in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Walter Henry Grassie, born on January 22, 1861, in Tuckersmith Township, Huron County, Ontario, Canada, was the owner and proprietor of Grassie & Co. in Vancouver, British Columbia for fifty-five years, from 1886 until his death on April 3, 1941, at age 80. Before moving to Vancouver Mr. Grassie was married to Charlotte Fowler in 1885. They lived together at 1003 West Thirty-third Street and raised a daughter, Pearl, and a son, William Walter, together. For their first fourteen years in Vancouver the jewelry business was located on Cordova Street, until 1900 when they moved the store to 318 Cambia Street where it remained for thirty-nine years. In 1915 William Walter Grassie was killed in action during World War I. In 1917 Mr. Grassie’s son-in-law, Frank McElroy, joined him in the business. Walter and Charlotte Grassie celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1935. Charlotte Grassie died in 1939 after 54 years of marriage to Walter Grassie. In 1939 Mr. Grassie and his son-in-law also moved the store to 607 West Hastings Street where it remained for the last two years of Mr. Grassie’s life.

This 1896 Seth Thomas open-face 18-size Model 5 pocket watch was manufactured with a nickel finished full plate, 21 jewels, and it is adjusted to six positions. The movement is stem wound and lever set, with a Breguet hair spring, and micrometric regulator. Its serial number is 205413, and its grade is Seth Thomas marked grade 260. The movement is signed “Seth Thomas Thomaston, Conn.”.

This movement is among the first run of Marked Grade movements produced. The marking format found on all four grades of Marked Grade movements produced subsequently has the jewel count adjacent to the regulator scale and the grade is marked along the side the base of the balance bridge. The positions of those markings are reversed on the first run of Marked Grade No. 260 movements.

The movement presents with an 18-size Grassie & Co. Arabic 24-hour dial with a red-24-hour ring inside the black 12-hour ring, a hash marks minute track and no marginals, fitted with Seth Thomas #1281 blued spade hands 18-size.

The movement is cased in an 18-size Fahys Watch Case Company gold-filled 20-year open-face Montauk pocket watch case with screw back and bezel, serial number 7327247.