hermetic watch;
watch-case
- Museum number
- 1988,1013.6
- Description
-
Leather and gold-plated hermetic watch with lever escapement.
Movement with club-tooth lever escapement; wound by the action of opening and closing the case.
Silvered-metal dial with baton hour markers.
Gold-plated hands.
'Hermetic' gold-plated and leather covered case with fold-out support for desk or table use.
- Production date
- 1955
- Dimensions
-
Length: 49.20 millimetres
-
Thickness: 14.90 millimetres
-
Width: 34.50 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 V (Unpublished manuscript)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 Movado
Switzerland, c. 1955
Self winding Hermetic watch with a club tooth lever escapement.
Signature: On the dial 'MOVADO' and 'SWISS MADE'
Case: A three part case gilded. A snap on back and bezel. On the case back are the numbers 533 4 793 with, on the case middle, 793 again. Inside the case back two words in rectangular cartouches 'BREVET' and 'GRISITE' and the number 152507 - 051.
Dial & Hands: A brushed silvered metal dial with gilt hour batons with a central black stripe. Gilt baton hands.
Movement: On the movement barrel bridge is 'MOVADO FACTORIES' On the train bridge is 'SEVENTEEN UNADJUSTED 17 JEWELS SWISS'
Ebauche Marks: 150 MN in a cartouche on the inside of the front plate.
Frame: A nickel silver frame with a bridge for the barrel keyless work and centre and cocks for the train the pallets and the balance.
Barrel and Mainspring: The going barrel is sealed and is not intended to be opened, so that the information of internal dimensions etc could not be established.
Barrel: External diameter 10.05 mm., height 2.17 mm.
Train: All the wheels gilded, the centre wheel, third and fourth wheels with five crossings. The steel escape wheel with four.
Jewelling: Jewelled bearings at the centre and from the third wheel onwards, all the jewels pressed in. Incabloc shock protection to the balance jewels.
Escapement: A straight line layout club tooth lever escapement with short lever, double roller and D-shaped impulse pin. The exposed pallet stones have flat acting faces. A steel escape wheel with four crossings.
An equal impulse mixed escapement.
No. of teeth embraced 3½.
Balance & Spring: a monometallic balance with gold screws. Balance diameter 9.37 mm., thickness 0.82 mm. A 'self compensating' flat spiral spring with 15 turns and a terminal curve.
Means of Regulation: An index on the balance cock registers against a divided scale with 'Fast' and 'Slow' engraved on the balance cock table.
Train Counts and Beat Rate:
Great wheel 70 (barrel)
Centre wheel 64 pinion 10
Third wheel 60 pinion 8
Fourth wheel 60 pinion 8
Escape wheel 15 pinion 6
Beat rate 18,000
Motion work: cannon pinion 10
minute wheel 30, minute pinion 8
hour wheel 32
Winding System: Conventional positive set keyless work.
Dimensions:
Outer case closed 49 mm., height 15 mm., case open 73.6 mm.
Movement: diameter 23.2 mm, height 5.6 mm.
Provenance: Purchased in 1988.
Note:
Hermetic Watches
No one knows why these watches are called Hermetic as they are neither in air tight cases or cases impervious to liquid. However although the watches are not hermetically sealed they are protected from dust and moisture to a considerable extent by virtue of their double case. It is probable that an early patentee may have overstated his claim about sealing when the original patent was taken out.
Movado were one of the first to take up the Hermetic watch and continued to make them for many years, as this example attests. (Zenith International possessed the rights to the Movado name between 1972 and 1983). The Movado hermetic watches were first marketed in 1926. This model is one of the Ermeto series. The name Ermeto is derived from the Greek for tight or locked, and was developed and patented in March 6th 1930 by Huguenin Freres. Not all of this type of watch is fitted with a self winding facility and this particular example is c. 1955. A comprehensive review of this type of watch is to be found in the NAWCC Bulletin for June 1994 It is by Bernard U. Bowman Jn. (OH) VOL V.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Latest: 2 (2017)
- Acquisition date
- 1988
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1988,1013.6
