- Museum number
- 1958,1201.1266
- Description
-
Movement of a quarter-repeating centre-seconds watch.
Pin lever escapement; beats seconds; geared hand setting at 5.30.
Enamel dial.
Train Count
Great wheel 60 (fusee)
Second wheel 64 pinion 10
Third wheel 60 pinion 8
Fourth wheel 30 pinion 8
Escape wheel 12 pinion 12
Beat rate: 3,600
Motion work:
cannon wheel 32
intermediate wheel 32 (mounted on the second wheel)
minute wheel 32, minute pinion 6
Repeat train:
First wheel 54 (barrel)
Second wheel 36 pinion 7
Third wheel 32 pinion 6
Fourth wheel 32 pinion 6
Fifth wheel 32 pinion 6
Sixth pinion 6
- Production date
- 1805-1815
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 49.10 millimetres (dial)
-
Thickness: 16.50 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Comment from Richard Good, Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum. Vol. V (Unpublished manuscript)
Maker unknown
France or Switzerland, ca. 1810
Movement of a centre-seconds pin wheel-lever stop watch with 3-repeat mechanism, seconds-beating Pouzait-type escapement.
Signature: None.
Case: Missing.
Dial & Hands: Domed dial with Arabic numerals. There is a small amount of damage near the 3 numeral. Fired into the counter-enamel on the back of the dial are two letters which are difficult to interpret but may be 'P' and 'I', possibly the dial maker's mark. Blued steel hands with gold rosettes. Only the tail of the gold centre-seconds hand survives.
Dial-plate: None intended, the dial is pinned directly to the movement.
Dust-cap: None intended.
Movement:
Ebauche Marks: 262 inside the back plate and also on the front plate where it is mostly cut away.
Frame: An unusual form of full plate construction with four cylindrical pillars. The fourth wheel is planted at the centre of the watch for centre-seconds display. The rim of the front plate is decorated with a fine beaded design, broken only by the letters 'A' and 'M' for Arrête and Marche (stop and go). There is a large engraved cock for the balance and separate engraved cocks for the escape wheel and the pallets. A further engraved cock serves as part of the banking for the lever (see below). There is a large aperture in the back plate with a polished steel bridge for the barrel. There is a polished steel double coqueret on the balance cock and the pallet cock has polished steel end-plate.
Fusee, Barrel and Mainspring:
Fusee: four-turn fusee without maintaining power.
Barrel: the barrel has engraved decoration on the base, internal diameter 15.0 mm, height 4.30 mm.
Mainspring: height 3.95 mm, thickness 0.23 mm.
Barrel Arbor: a two part arbor with a brass head and steel body, diameter 4.9 mm, not snailed.
Hooking: round.
Train: Plain brass wheels with four crossings except for the fourth which is solid.
Jewelling: There are no jewelled bearings. The balance cock has a soldered-in bush and its pivot acts on a polished-steel end-stone, the jewel in the balance cock being purely decorative. The lower pivots of the balance and pallets share a common end-plate secured in the centre by a single screw. On one side the pallet pivot bears on a jewelled endstone and the other end is a simple polished steel stud for the balance pivot. This polished steel stud is located in a radial groove which allows the whole plate to be rotated when the screw is loosened to allow access for oiling.
Escapement: An obtuse-angle layout pin-wheel lever escapement with double roller, brass impulse piece and small gold roller. A brass escape wheel with steel pins. Steel lever with a wide notch and a long steel guard pin mounted on the pallet arbor. The acting faces of the pallets are convex. The broad tail on the end of the lever acts as a counter-poise. Banking is achieved by the outer edges of the fork banking on one side against a round pin in the edge of the plate and on the other side against an engraved cock.(1)
An equal impulse escapement.
No. of teeth embraced 32.
Balance and Spring: Brass balance with five slender arms, diameter 38.0 mm, thickness 0.73 mm. The balance is nearly as large in diameter as the movement. Blued-steel flat spiral spring with 5 turns, now somewhat distorted.
Means of Regulation: An index on the balance cock registers against a divided scale with 'A' and 'R' engraved around the junction of the balance cock table and foot.
Train Counts and Beat Rate:
Great wheel 60 (fusee)
Second wheel 64 pinion 10
Third wheel 60 pinion 8
Fourth wheel 30 pinion 8
Escape wheel 12 pinion 12
Beat rate: 3,600
Motion work: cannon wheel 32
intermediate wheel 32 (mounted on the second wheel)
minute wheel 32, minute pinion 6
hour wheel 72
Repeating Mechanism:
A standard pendant operated quarter repeat mechanism with chain drive to circular racks. A plunger in the case pendant would have moved a lever to which is attached a chain. This chain winds the repeating arbor. All or nothing work is fitted. The repeat train is driven by a fixed barrel and consists of six wheels, the last being a plain pinion. This last pinion runs in an eccentric slotted bush which when moved adjusts the depthing to regulate the speed of striking. The hammers strike on two steel wire round-section gongs screwed to the inside of the front plate.
Barrel and Mainspring:
Barrel: a fixed barrel, internal diameter 10.9 mm, height 1.5 mm.
Mainspring: height 1.85 mm, thickness 0.14 mm.
Barrel Arbor: diameter 3.3 mm, not snailed.
Hooking: The mainspring sits proud of the barrel and in a recess in the plate. The outer end exits the barrel through a slot in the wall and is anchored to an external round hook.
Train count:
First wheel 54 (barrel)
Second wheel 36 pinion 7
Third wheel 32 pinion 6
Fourth wheel 32 pinion 6
Fifth wheel 32 pinion 6
Sixth pinion 6
It is interesting to note that the third, fourth and fifth wheels are all of the same count. They are, however, original.
Stop Mechanism: When operated, a sprung lever causes a wire detent to touch the balance rim.
Winding Mechanism: Key wound. The hands are set by turning a wheel which protrudes from the side of the movement between the front plate and the dial edge. This wheel meshes with an intermediate wheel, which in turn rotates the motion work to set the hands.
Dimensions:
Movement: diameter 49.3 mm, height 16.7 mm, pillar height 2.3 mm.
Provenance: Formerly in the Ilbert Collection. Ilbert purchased this from Van Mosel in Amsterdam 23/5/1931.
Notes:
(1) For a similar escapement see cat no. 21 (registration no. 1958,1201.1037).
For a watch signed Pouzait, the only one known, see Cardinal 1985, p.97. The history and development of the Pouzait lever escapement is also discussed in Chapiro, 'La Montre Français', p.197.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Latest: 4 (2017) touch of rust on gong
- 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
- 1958,1201.1266
- Additional IDs
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: CAI.1266 (Ilbert Collection)
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: L15 (Ilbert Ledger)
