Pocket Watches · Early spring-driven spherical watch
Spherical table watch ('Melanchthon's Watch')
Provisionally attributedEditorial status
One of the earliest dated watches to survive. The inscription 'PHIL. MELA. GOTT. ALLEIN. DIE. EHR. 1530' links it to the reformer Philipp Melanchthon; the association is traditional rather than documented by provenance. Often discussed with the Henlein-attributed pomander watch (Nuremberg, inscribed 1505), whose attribution is disputed.
- Maker / attribution
- Unknown Nuremberg maker
- Attribution as recorded
- Unknown Nuremberg maker
- Country of origin
- Holy Roman Empire
- Place of manufacture
- Nuremberg
- Date
- Dated 1530
- Historical period
- Renaissance Horology
- Movement
- Iron movement, verge escapement, foliot balance
- Escapement
- Verge escapement
- Winding / power
- Spring-driven, key-wound
- Case / materials
- Gilded brass, pierced spherical case
- Dimensions
- c. 4.8 cm (approximate; see museum record)
- Holding / location
- Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (acc. 58.17)
Mechanisms in this object
- Verge escapement — Escapement
- Foliot — Component
Related reading
- Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers, F. J. Britten (1899 (first edition))
About this record
Fields marked "Undocumented" have not been verified by our editors and are intentionally left blank rather than estimated. Corrections with sources are welcome.
