- Museum number
- 1958,1201.1207
- Description
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MOVEMENT AND DIAL OF A HUNTER-CASED LEVER WATCH.
3/4 plate [usual layout], fusee, Harrison's maintaining-power, keyless-work [damaged] Guiblet and Rambal patent, hollow centre-pinion, ratchet-tooth lever-escapement, Earnshaw compensation balance.
Dial; enamel, 2-piece, white with black I-XII numerals, sunk subsidiary seconds dial at 9 o'clock marked 10-60.
Hands; blued steel spade hands, and seconds hand.
Case; missing but was hunter [winding at 3 o'clock].
- Production date
- 1865-1875
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 38.60 millimetres (back-plate)
-
Diameter: 41 millimetres (dial)
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Thickness: 9.20 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
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- Curator's comments
- Comment from Richard Good, Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum. Vol. V (Unpublished manuscript)
Made by Vieyres and Repingon.(1)
London, c. 1870
Movement of a fusee keyless watch with ratchet tooth lever escapement.
Signature: On the dial 'VIEYRES & REPINGON 129 REGENT STREET LONDON', on the back plate 'Vieyres & Repingon 129 Regent St. LONDON NE 6058'.
Case: Now missing but may have been originally of hunter type.
Dial & Hands: Flat dial with a sunk subsidiary seconds dial situated at IX o'clock. A number in red in the counter-enamel beginning with 4(?) but then rubbed away.
Dial-plate: No dial-plate, the dial is fitted directly to the front plate and is retained by dog screws and not pinned on.
Dust-cap: None intended.
Movement:
Ebauche Marks: 6058 12 * 0 513 T + S.(2)
3
Frame: 3/4 plate layout, the back plate supported by three turned pillars and secured by screws. The number '3' stamped under the back plate. A separate combined cock for the pallets and escape wheel. The balance cock is engraved with foliate scroll decoration on the table and foot.
Fusee, Barrel and Mainspring:
Fusee: four-turn fusee with Harrison's maintaining power and with a steel maintaining ratchet wheel.
Barrel: flanged, internal diameter 14.5 mm, height 1.6 mm.
Mainspring: height 1.4 mm, thickness 0.21 mm.
Barrel Arbor: diameter 4.9 mm, not snailed.
Hooking: square.
Train: All the wheels gilded, the centre, third and fourth wheels with five crossings.
Jewelling: Jewelled bearings from the fourth wheel onwards, the fourth in the front plate rubbed in, all the rest in screwed settings. Ruby endstones throughout the escapement, except for a diamond in the balance cock.
Escapement: A right-angle layout ratchet tooth lever with a short lever, single roller and D-shaped impulse pin. The enclosed pallet stones have convex impulse and locking faces. The brass escape wheel has three crossings.
An equal impulse escapement.
No. of teeth embraced 32.
Balance & Spring: A split bimetallic balance with gold timing and quarter screws and four platinum timing screws. Balance diameter 15.2 mm. thickness 1.0 mm. Blued-steel flat spiral spring with 16 3/4 turns pinned to a polished steel stud mounted on the balance cock.
Means of Regulation: An index mounted on the balance cock registers against a divided scale with 'FAST' and 'SLOW' engraved on the back plate.
Train Counts and Beat Rate:
Great wheel 74 (fusee)
Centre wheel 64 pinion 10
Third wheel 60 pinion 8
Fourth wheel 63 pinion 8
Escape wheel 15 pinion 7
Beat Rate: 16,200
Motion Work: cannon pinion 12
minute Wheel 48, minute pinion 14
hour wheel 41
Winding System: Keyless fusee winding and hand-setting of the type patented by J.J.L. Guiblet and J. Rambal, 30th March 1861, patent no. 7894.
Dimensions:
Movement: diameter 41.0 mm, height 9.0 mm, pillar height 2.5 mm.
Provenance: Ilbert Collection. Ilbert purchased this from Malcolm Gardner 31/12/1936.
Notes:
(1) Vieyres & Repingon, watch, clock, and chronometer makers and jewellers were at 129 Regent Street between 1851 and 1875. Anthony Vieyres had previously been a director of the British Watch Company (1843-1845).
(2) Thomas Scarisbrick ebauche maker of Prescot.
Julius J. Guiblet 1861-71 of 11, Wilmington Square, London. Guiblet and Rambal, in partnership c.1861-c.1863.
Patent no 789 was granted to J. J. L. Guiblet and J. Rambal, 30th March 1861. The patent abridgement reads as follows:-
'Keyless mechanism; escapements.- Relates to keyless mechanism for watches in which the hands may be turned in either direction, even when the watch is fully wound up, and also to a device for lessening the friction in plain lever escapement. Fig.1 shows the form of keyless mechanism adopted with watches constructed on the going barrel principle. The wheel a, capable of turning freely on the boss of the ratchet-wheel b, is geared to the pendant and turns the ratchet-wheel b of the winding-mechanism by the clock c. The wheel f, mounted on a projection from a ring i, gears with the wheel a and, by pressing the stud m, gears with the pinion h, connected to the minute hand. Within the ring i, is another ring k, normally eccentric to the winding-axis, and in this ring is a small hole into which a pin on the underside of the click c enters. Within the ring i, are springs and inclines which, when the ring i is partially rotated by depressing the stud m, force the ring k into a concentric position, thus lifting the click c out of the teeth of the ratchet-wheel b. The hands may now be turned in either direction, independently of the state of wing of the watch. Fig.3 shows mechanism for the same purpose applicable to watches in which a chain and fusee are employed. On the winding axis a, is fixed the toothed wheel b and above this is the wheel c carried by the frame d, turning on a centre e. The wheel h, permanently in gear with the wheel b, is deep enough to also gear with wheel c. The click i, carried by the frame d, is pressed by the spring k on the wheel b but not so as to prevent the latter from rotating. When the wheel f, in gear with both the pendant and the wheel c, is turned, the pressure of the click i causes the frame d to turn so that the wheel c gears with the wheel h, and hence communicates motion to the wheel b and the winding axis a. When the stud n is pressed, the lever o moves the frame d so that the wheel c gears with the wheel g, so that the hands of the watch may be set by turning the pendant, independently of the state of winding of the watch.'
The continuation of the patent refers to the means by which friction is reduced in 'plain lever' watches and a further reference to a clutch mechanism in the pendant to facilitate hand setting.
For a watch by Dent, No.30889 with similar keyless mechanism see T. P. Camerer Cuss, 'The Camerer Cuss Book of Antique Watches', 1976. pp. 242-243.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
-
Latest: 3 (2017)
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2 (Jan 1995)
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2 (1993)
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Acquisition notes
- Following the successful acquisition of the celebrated Ilbert collection of clocks (1958,1006 collection), prints and other related materials made possible by the generous donation of funds by Gilbert Edgar CBE Ilbert's watches were then acquired using funds provided by Gilbert Edgar, public donations and government funds.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1958,1201.1207
- Additional IDs
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: CAI.1207 (Ilbert Collection)
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Previous owner/ex-collection number: P128 (Ilbert Ledger)