Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Gilt Swiss pre-balance verge watch with rock crystal cover, 1635
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1635
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Dimensions
- Case 25 mm
- Stock no.
- G2393
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Somlo Antiques (G2393)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Gilt Swiss pre-balance verge watch with rock crystal cover. Made 1635 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Somlo Antiques (dealer), London (stock number G2393), this is a pocket watch, made in Switzerland, dated 1635. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Pocket Watches collection. Recorded dimensions: Case 25 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
"Swiss" being a term officially adopted in the late 19th century, stands out, as most other countries use the phrase "Made in (Country Name).". It is most commonly seen on Swiss watches, in which the law only permits to be on watches manufactured in Switzerland. Brand: Swiss Made: 1635 Model: Verge watch Reference: - Calibre: - Movement: Manual - Gilt full plate is engraved with foliage and flowers with a verge escapement, a decoratively pierced and engraved pinned-on balance cock and foot, plain flat steel balance, wheel and click-set-up, fuseé and gut line, with turned baluster pillars Material: Gilt metal & Rock crystal Features/complications: Gilt metal case engraved with foliate design and a hinged rock crystal cover Dial: The gilt dial features an applied narrow silver chapter ring engraved with Roman numerals with half hour divisions and set with a turned blue steel hand. The dial centres on an engraved townscape with a gilt outer border chased and engraved with scrolling foliage Case dimensions: 42 x 25mm Bracelet/strap: N/A Accessories: N/A SKU: 2393
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.
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