Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
18ct yellow gold Swiss enamel set open face pocketwatch, 1840s
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1840s
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- yellow gold
- Dimensions
- Case 46 mm
- Stock no.
- G2244
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Somlo Antiques (G2244)
- Catalogue title (original)
- 18ct yellow gold Swiss enamel set open face pocketwatch. Made 1840's (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Somlo Antiques (dealer), London (stock number G2244), this is a pocket watch, made in Switzerland, dated 1840s. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: yellow gold. Recorded dimensions: Case 46 mm. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Somlo Antiques
Watchmakers from Geneva, Paris and Blois initiated trade relations with the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 17th century. Soon after, a colony of Geneva watchmakers was settled in Galata, a district of Constantinople reserved to the Westerners. Among these colonials was Isaac Rousseau, the father of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, presented in Les Confessions as “horologer du sérail”, meaning ‘’watchmaker at the service of the Sultan I’’. Brand: SWISS (unsigned) Made: 1840's Model: N/A Reference: N/A Calibre: N/A Movement: Manual Material: 18ct yellow gold Features/complications: Open face case with gold and enamel featuring enamel detailing around the circumference, surrounding the dial and on the bow. Centre of case back painted with enamel scene depicting a boat on the river Bosphorus at sunset. Gilded dust cover with apertures for winding and setting Dial: White enamel dial with outer minute track featuring Eastern Arabic numerals with steel skeletonised hands. Case dimensions: Diameter 46 mm | Thickness 10 mm Bracelet/strap: N/A Accessories: N/A SKU: 2244
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
From 1750 to 1850 the watch became a precision instrument. Mudge's lever escapement, the cylinder escapement, Lépine's thin bar calibre, Breguet's innovations (overcoil, tourbillon, perpétuelle) and the pocket chronometer of Arnold and Earnshaw all date from this period, while verge watches remained common in cheaper production.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Hunter, half-hunter and open-face watches
In the nineteenth century the pocket watch case settled into a few standard forms. The hunter (French savonnette) has a hinged front lid protecting the crystal — reputedly for riders who could not risk broken glass — and is opened by pressing the crown or a push-piece. The half-hunter has a small window in the lid so the hands can be read when closed. The open-face (lépine) watch has no front cover, with the crown at 12; hunters normally carry the crown at 3.
Case types also changed with winding: key-wound watches gave way to keyless (stem-wound) mechanisms after Adrien Philippe's and others' designs of the 1840s, with pendant setting or lever setting.
What to look for
- Crown position relative to the seconds dial: at 3 for hunters, at 12 for open-face watches.
- Spring-loaded front cover with a push-piece in the pendant.
- Half-hunter chapter ring enamelled on the lid.
- Key holes in the inner dome (cuvette) versus keyless winding.
Dating clues
- Keyless winding spread after c. 1850 and became standard by c. 1890.
- English hallmarks inside gold and silver cases give the year of assay.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Detached lever escapement
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