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Pocket watch by G Prior, England, 1928 — view 1 of 3
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Pocket Watches · Pocket watch

Pocket watch by G Prior, England, 1928

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
G Prior (Maker)
Date
1928
Country of origin
England
Place
Storbritannien London
Object type
Pocket watch
Materials / technique
silver
Holding institution
Museum of Gothenburg
Accession / object no.
GM:9449 D756 [/neg.nr] 9449
Credit line
Museum of Gothenburg
Catalogue title (original)
fickur, tidmätare (Swedish)

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by Museum of Gothenburg (object number GM:9449 D756 [/neg.nr] 9449), this is a pocket watch by G Prior, made in Storbritannien London, England, dated 1928. 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: silver. 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

Catalogue description from Museum of Gothenburg

GM:9449 Tidsindelning (805) Metallhantverk (326) G prior london Prior, G

Shown in the original language of the source catalogue. An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.

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

Watches for the Chinese and Ottoman markets

From the late eighteenth century English and Swiss makers produced watches specifically for export to China and the Ottoman Empire. For China, Fleurier houses such as Bovet, Juvet and Vrard made matching pairs of watches with richly engraved and decorated movements, often with the duplex escapement whose centre seconds hand jumps in full seconds. For Ottoman buyers, London makers such as George Prior and Markwick Markham supplied verge watches with Turkish numerals in triple or quadruple cases of tortoiseshell and silver.

These watches reflect global trade networks and the tastes of distant markets, and are important evidence for cross-cultural exchange in horology.

What to look for

  • Engraved, fully decorated movements visible under a glass back.
  • Duplex escapement with a jumping centre seconds hand.
  • Chinese characters on the movement (e.g. the maker's name in transliteration).
  • Turkish (Ottoman) numerals on the dial and multiple protective outer cases.

Dating clues

  • Chinese-market Fleurier watches: c. 1820–1900.
  • English Ottoman-market watches: c. 1770–1850.

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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