English silver watches dating by hallmark 1850 - 1977

In London, where silver inspections, tests and hallmarking took place in the mid-19th century, a different hallmark/letter was used every calendar year; the same applied to the assay offices in Sheffield, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

Using the list below, the age of an English silver watch can be assigned at least fairly accurately to a calendar year, assuming that the hallmarking of a case +/- took place in the same year as the casing and final assembly of the pocket watch.