Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Pocket watch by Firm of Breguet et Fils, France, ca. 1900
- Maker / attribution
- Firm of Breguet et Fils (Maker)
- Date
- ca. 1900
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- France
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- Gold, enamel, gilded brass and steel
- Dimensions
- 2 7/8 × 2 × 9/16 in. (7.3 × 5.1 × 1.4 cm)
- Holding institution
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Accession / object no.
- 1979.498.1
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Georges E. Seligmann, in memory of his father, Simon Seligmann, the art collector, 1979
- Catalogue title (original)
- Pocket watch
Record summary
Held and catalogued by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (object number 1979.498.1), this is a pocket watch by Firm of Breguet et Fils, made in France, dated ca. 1900. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Gold, enamel, gilded brass and steel. Recorded dimensions: 2 7/8 × 2 × 9/16 in. (7.3 × 5.1 × 1.4 cm). 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
The source record does not include a narrative description. The structured fields above are reproduced from it.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The pocket watch reached technical maturity and then began to give way to the wristwatch after the First World War. Complicated watches for collectors such as Henry Graves Jr. and James Ward Packard, railroad watches, and slim Art Deco dress watches are characteristic.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Pocket watches
The pocket watch was the dominant personal timekeeper from the late seventeenth century until the First World War. Its development tracks the history of the escapement: verge watches with fusees until the late eighteenth century; Thomas Mudge's lever escapement (c. 1755) and the cylinder escapement popularised by George Graham and later by Swiss makers; and the Swiss and English lever watches of the nineteenth century. Lépine's bar-bridge calibre and keyless winding made watches thinner and easier to use.
Industrialisation transformed the trade: American factories such as Waltham (from 1850) and Elgin produced interchangeable parts by machine, and Swiss makers responded with their own mechanisation after the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition. By 1900 a reliable watch was affordable to millions; the finest makers continued to produce complications and precision watches.
What to look for
- The escapement: verge (crown wheel), cylinder, duplex, English or Swiss lever.
- Key winding (a square arbor in dial or back) or keyless crown winding.
- Signatures and serial numbers on the movement, dial and inside case back.
- Hallmarks, case maker's marks and gold or silver standards stamped in the case.
- Dial material: enamel, silver, gold, later printed metal.
Dating clues
- Verge watches dominate before c. 1800; cylinder watches c. 1770–1900; lever watches after c. 1820.
- Keyless winding: increasingly common after c. 1860.
- Manufacturer serial number lists exist for Waltham, Elgin, Longines, Omega, Patek Philippe and others.
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 escapementDetached lever escapementFuseeIdentification Centre
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