Pocket Watches · Watch; verge movement
Pocket watch by Wilter, John, Netherlands, 1780
- Maker / attribution
- Wilter, John (maker)
- Date
- 1780
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Netherlands
- Place
- Europe, Europe
- Object type
- Watch; verge movement
- Holding institution
- Science Museum Group, London
- Accession / object no.
- L2015-3233
- Credit line
- Lent by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers
- Catalogue title (original)
- 'Dutch forgery' watch signed John Wilter
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number L2015-3233), this is a watch; verge movement by Wilter, John, made in Europe, Europe, Netherlands, dated 1780. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. The record is illustrated with 2 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
Science Museum Group description
John Wilter's name can be found on a number of lesser quality eighteenth century watches supposedly made in London. Although the watch is signed for London, features like the arcaded minute band and balance bridge are more indicative of a Dutch style, hence the name 'Dutch forgery'. It is now thought that these watches were in fact produced in Switzerland. London-made watches were considered to be the best on the market, which gave rise to the production of cheaper continental copies such as this, where manufacturers hoped to cash-in on the 'London' name. Clockmakers' Museum No. 223
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
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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