Pocket Watches · Pocket chronometer
Historical silver repeating pocket chronometer of Royal Interest by James Gorham, hallmarked London 1825
- Maker / attribution
- James Gorham (maker)
- Date
- 1825 (hallmarked London)
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Pocket chronometer
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Dimensions
- Diameter 57 mm
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 11, lot 357
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 357, The Watch Auction, Gardiner Houlgate (21st October 2020)
- Catalogue title (original)
- James Gorham, Kensington - interesting historical silver repeating pocket chronometer of Royal Interest, London 1825, the fusee movement signed James Gorham, Watchmaker to the Royal Family, Kensington (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 11, lot 357), this is a pocket chronometer by James Gorham, made in England, dated 1825 (hallmarked London). The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver. Recorded dimensions: Diameter 57 mm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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
Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate
James Gorham, Kensington - interesting historical silver repeating pocket chronometer of Royal Interest, London 1825, the fusee movement signed James Gorham, Watchmaker to the Royal Family, Kensington, no. 850, with engraved balance cock with mask and diamond endstone, bimetallic 'Z' balance and blued steel helical spring, detent escapement with hammers striking on a gong, the cuvette inscribed 'HRH, Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, Obt. April 21st 1843, AEt. 70', the dial numbered 850 with Roman numerals, minute track and subsidiary seconds, moon hands, within a plain case with applied gold hinges, case maker 'HG', 57mm - ** Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773 -1843), was the sixth son of George III - ** This is a very interesting and fine timepiece, it is unclear whether this particular watch was actually owned by the Duke of Sussex, the inscription commemorates the date of his death, so it may have be have known that it was once in his collection especially being made by James Gorham to whom he had association with his clock collection
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
Pocket chronometers and precision watches
A pocket chronometer is a watch built to observatory standards, traditionally with a detent escapement like a marine chronometer. English makers such as John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw made the first pocket chronometers in the 1780s. In the nineteenth century the term increasingly referred to any watch that had passed official rating trials at observatories in Kew, Neuchâtel, Geneva or Besançon, and the Swiss lever chronometer became dominant.
Tourbillon and karrusel watches belong to the same world of precision. Breguet patented the tourbillon in 1801 to average out positional errors; Bahne Bonniksen's karrusel (1892) was a cheaper English alternative. Rating certificates (bulletins de marche) that accompany such watches are historical documents in their own right.
What to look for
- Detent escapement (no pallets; a fine spring detent locks the escape wheel).
- Observatory certificates, competition results or 'Chronometer' marking on the dial.
- Tourbillon carriage visible through an aperture or on the movement.
- Fine finishing: jewelled holes in gold chatons, diamond endstones.
Dating clues
- English pocket chronometers: c. 1780–1900.
- Observatory trials at Neuchâtel from 1866, Geneva from 1873, Kew from 1884.
- Karrusels: 1892–c. 1915.
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:TourbillonDetached lever escapement
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