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Gilt-brass cased verge coach watch with alarm [ case not original] — view 1 of 3
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Pocket Watches · Alarm watch

Gilt-brass cased verge coach watch with alarm [ case not original]

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
David Buschmann (Made by)
Date
1680–1690
Historical period
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Country of origin
Germany
Place
Augsburg
Object type
Alarm watch
Materials / technique
gold, brass
Dimensions
Diameter: 93 millimetres
Holding institution
British Museum
Accession / object no.
1958,1201.2314
Credit line
British Museum, London
Catalogue title (original)
Gilt-brass cased verge coach watch with alarm [ case not original] (English)

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 1958,1201.2314), this is an alarm watch by David Buschmann, made in Augsburg, Germany, dated 1680–1690. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: gold, brass. Recorded dimensions: Diameter: 93 millimetres. The record is illustrated with 3 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

Description — British Museum

Gilt-brass cased verge coach watch with alarm [ case not original]. : Movement Circular gilt-brass plates with four baluster pillars. Gilt-brass barrel with tangent-screw set-up beneath the front-plate. Fusee with chain and standard stop-work, the chain now replaced with a thick gut line. Four-wheel going train of gilt-brass wheels terminating with a verge escapement. Steel 3-arm balance with spiral balance spring and Barrow regulator. Pierced and engraved foliate balance-cock. : Alarm train driven by a fixed gilt-brass barrel with engraved decoration on the visible side and with geared stop-work under the dial. : Dial and hand Gilt-brass dial-plate with a gold champlevé dial. Roman hours I-XII surrounding a circle for quarters. Silver alarm-setting disc numbered 1-11 with a steel pointer at 12 to indicate the time. Alarm-setting hand not original. : Case Gilt brass pierced and engraved with realistic flowers but not executed in a 17th century style, the case appears to be a modern copy of a 1650-1680 original. 17th century bell taken from another watch.

Inscriptions & marks

signature; David Buschmann Augusta; repair mark; P Webster 1900 [on back of dial]

Provenance

Previous owner/ex-collection:, Courtenay Adrian Ilbert; Purchased through:, Christie's; Acquired 1958

Historical context

Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)

Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.

The balance spring (c. 1675) improved watches dramatically and introduced the minute hand. English pair-cased verge watches with pierced balance cocks and French oignons were typical; enamel painting at Blois and Geneva, and the repeating watch (1680s), made watches objects of great refinement.

Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology

Atlas type guide

Verge and pair-cased watches

After Christiaan Huygens and Robert Hooke applied the balance spring around 1675, the verge watch became a reasonably reliable timekeeper and the minute hand became standard. Through the eighteenth century the typical English watch was a pair-cased verge: a fusee movement with a pierced, engraved balance cock, housed in an inner case and a separate protective outer case, often of repoussé gold, shagreen, tortoiseshell or enamel.

French watches of the same period were thicker 'oignons', later replaced by elegant thinner watches following Jean-Antoine Lépine's bar-bridge calibre of c. 1770. Dutch, Swiss and German makers supplied international markets, and verge watches were made until the mid-nineteenth century as cheaper alternatives to the cylinder and lever.

What to look for

  • The pierced balance cock on the backplate: winged (continental) or with a foot (English); its style dates the watch.
  • Fusee and chain visible through the movement; key winding through the dial (early) or case back.
  • Hallmarks inside English silver or gold cases, which give a date letter.
  • Maker's name and serial number engraved on the backplate; watch papers inside outer cases.
  • Enamel dials (after c. 1720) versus earlier champlevé metal dials.

Dating clues

  • Champlevé dials: c. 1680–1730; white enamel dials thereafter.
  • English case hallmarks give the year of assay to within a year.
  • Verge watches persisted in cheap production until c. 1850.

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:Verge escapement

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