wrist-watch(movement & dial)
- Museum number
- 1992,0515.1
- Description
-
"POLYPLAN" CLUB-TOOTH LEVER ESCAPEMENT SUBSIDIARY SECONDS WRIST-WATCH [MOVEMENT ELONGATED AND CURVED TO FIT WEARER'S WRIST].
:
MOVEMENT:
The front and rear plates are angled to fit the curve of the wrist. Winding button at 12 o,clock. Club-tooth lever escapement.
:
DIAL & HANDS:
Painted-metal rectangular dial curved to fit the wearer's wrist. Arabic numerals 1-12 and subsidiary seconds. Blued-steel hour, minute and seconds hands.
:
CASE & WRIST-BAND:
Missing.
- Production date
- 1912-1915
- Dimensions
-
Length: 43.30 millimetres (including winding button)
-
Width: 15.80 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
-
-
-
- Curator's comments
- Comment from Richard Good, Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum. Vol. V (Unpublished manuscript)
Made by Movado
Switzerland, c. 1915
Wrist watch movement shaped to suit a curved case made to fit the wrist. The watch is generally known as the 'Curvex'
Signature: On the dial 'MOVADO' under the dial on the train bridge is 'MOVADO SWISS MADE FIFTEEN 15 JEWELS FOUR 4 ADJUSTS'.
Case: Missing
Dial & Hands: The dial is curved and is in general of Art Deco style with Arabic numerals filled with luminous paint and a subsidiary seconds dial with a sunk centre. Stamped on the back of the dial is 'STAIGER'. The hands are of blued-steel.
Movement
Ebauche Marks: 00766
Also stamped on the underside of the balance cock and the barrel bridge is stamped 766, with the full number is under the train bridge - 00766.
Frame: A most unusual brass nickel plated frame with the motion work on what is normally the back of the movement, on which is mounted the dial. A bridges for the barrel and the centre wheel another for the train and with cocks for the pallets and balance. The balance and the keyless work are mounted on parts of the back plate that are bent down from the main part of the movement at an angle of approximately 28 degrees.
Barrel and Mainspring:
Going barrel: internal diameter 10.2 mm, height 1.2 mm.
Mainspring: height 1.2 mm, thickness 0.12 mm.
Barrel Arbor: diameter 3.2 mm, snailed.
Hooking: Pressed in from the barrel wall.
Train: All the brass wheels are gilded, the centre, third and fourth wheels with five crossings. The steel escape wheel with four.
Jewelling: Jewelled bearings from the third wheel onwards, all the jewels rubbed in, those in the plate beneath the dial are in screwed settings. Ruby endstones to the balance jewels.
Escapement: An obtuse angle layout, club tooth lever escapement with short lever, the lever bent to follow the configuration of the plate. A double roller and D-shaped impulse pin. The exposed pallet stones have flat acting faces. A steel escape wheel with four crossings.
An equidistant locking escapement.
No. of teeth embraced 3½.
Balance & Spring: A split bimetallic balance with gold screws. Balance diameter 9.65 mm., thickness 0.6 mm. A blued steel flat spiral spring with 13 turns and a terminal curve.
Means of Regulation: An index on the balance cock registers against a divided scale with 'A R' and 'Fast' and 'Slow' engraved on the balance cock table.
Train Counts and Beat Rate: CHECK
Great wheel 72 (barrel)
Centre wheel 64 pinion 10 (The pinion has been softened and drilled for a new pivot which has then been soldered in position - a poor job)
Third wheel 60 pinion 8
Fourth wheel 60 pinion 8
Escape wheel 15 pinion 6
Beat rate: 18,000
Motion work: cannon pinion 15
minute wheel 40, minute pinion 10
hour wheel 45. The minute wheel is held down by a steel bridge.
Winding System: Positive set keyless work with the hand set on the side beneath the dial and the winding on the reverse side.
Dimensions: Movement: 37.7 mm long 15.2 mm. wide.
Provenance: Purchased in 1992 with the aid of funds from the Dingwall Bequest?
Notes:
See ALTE UHREN 4/83 for an article by N. Enders 'Krumme Sache' pp 312, 381 and 382. This watch was covered by a German patent No. 257360 dated 11th June 1912. The model shown in the article has a regulator with an extension so as to enable the watch to be regulated from the back instead of from the front of the movement.
Movado are one of the few Swiss firms to have made a watch with a spring detent escapement, certainly the quality of this watch is unmistakeable.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Latest: 5 (Aug 1995) One dial-foot screw is missing, the dial foot has been located in the plate hole and flattened with pliers. The seconds arbor is broken, the hand loose.
- Acquisition date
- 1992
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1992,0515.1
