alarm watch;
clock-watch;
watch-case
- Museum number
- 1874,0718.26
- Description
-
OVAL GILT-BRASS AND SILVER CLOCK-WATCH WITH ALARM [DIAL NOT ORIGINAL].
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Movement Frame: Oval gilt-brass plates with four early Egyptian pillars. There are two separate bridges for wheels in the going and alarm trains. Engraved decoration around the verge aperture.
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Mainspring & Set-Up: Replacement plain brass barrel with snap-in cap and riveted steel hook. The present tangent screw set-up replaces the original bow-and-arrow set-up. The holes in the plate for the original components remain.
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Fusee & Stop-Work
Gilt brass fusee for gut line [now missing]. English stop-work, the spring and screw probably replaced.
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Going train: Three-wheel train of gilt-brass wheels, the pinions and possibly the wheels replaced.
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Escapement & Balance: Verge escapement, the crown wheel runs between a riveted potence and a screwed-on counter potence. The verge and blued-steel balance are later replacements. Gilt-brass pierced and engraved foliate balance-cock pinned to a stud on the potence-plate.
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Striking Train: Count-wheel controlled striking train for hours only powered by a fixed barrel screwed to the potence-plate, pierced and engraved decoration on the visible side. Six wheel train terminating with a plain pinion. Warned release, the release gate badly pitted and poorly repaired, the warning gate replaced. Silver count-wheel engraved 1-12 with a rosette in the middle.
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Alarm Train: Powered by a fixed gilt-brass barrel, the train consists of three wheels, the second and contrate being solid. Crown wheel and verge with a semi-circular hammer on the verge. Riveted potence and screwed-on counter potence.
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Dial & Hand: Gilt-brass dial plate with three bayonet lugs for attaching the movement. The dial plate is engraved with a wide border of scrolling foliage with a naked figure seated on a barrel and holding a jug and chalice (Bacchus). Flanking the figure are rabbits and at the base of the dial is a grotesque devil's head flanked by birds. The original applied chapter-ring, probably silver, has been removed and the central pierced and engraved foliate alarm-setting disc, numbered 1-12 has been riveted to the dial plate, its pointer now removed. At a later date the dial plate has been drilled to receive the feet of a later silver chapter-ring which covers all of the engraved decoration around the dial, leaving only the alarm-setting disc visible in the centre. The later chapter-ring has Roman hour numerals I-XII, fleur-de-lis half-hour marks and a quarter circle. The hour pointer, the alarm-setting hand and the pinion of report are all missing.
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Case:
Oval gilt-brass case with later integral silver back and a hinged silver bezel. Between an upper and lower rim, the band is pierced and engraved with scrolling foliage, hounds, a rabbit, a bird and a fish. Cast gilt-brass decorative pendant and turned finial.
- Production date
- 1615-1620
- Dimensions
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Length: 83.10 millimetres (case including pendant and finial)
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Thickness: 36.30 millimetres
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Width: 55.50 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- The alterations to the dial and case do not appear to be recent. The style of the later chapter ring suggests a date for the alterations of about 1660, at which timepresunably the lid was either replaced by the present silver bezel and the new back added. The original lid and back may well have been engraved gilt-brass, both solid. If the conversion had been done any later it seems likely that a balance spring would also have been added. Many of the steel parts have been replaced and those that remain are very badly pitted, suggesting that the watch was, at some time, seriously rusted.
Wood, E J Curiosities 1866.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1874
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1874,0718.26
