
Pocket Watches · Exposure meter
Pocket watch by Wynne, G.F., 1912
- Maker / attribution
- Wynne, G.F. (maker); G.F. Wynne (maker)
- Date
- 1912
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Exposure meter
- Dimensions
- overall: 65 mm x 50 mm x 6 mm,
- Holding institution
- Science Museum Group, London
- Accession / object no.
- 1979-559/2022
- Credit line
- The Arthur Frank Collection
- Catalogue title (original)
- Wynne 'Hunter' Infallible Exposure Meter
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number 1979-559/2022), this is an exposure meter by Wynne, G.F., dated 1912. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Pocket Watches collection. Recorded dimensions: overall: 65 mm x 50 mm x 6 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
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
Hunter, half-hunter and open-face watches
In the nineteenth century the pocket watch case settled into a few standard forms. The hunter (French savonnette) has a hinged front lid protecting the crystal — reputedly for riders who could not risk broken glass — and is opened by pressing the crown or a push-piece. The half-hunter has a small window in the lid so the hands can be read when closed. The open-face (lépine) watch has no front cover, with the crown at 12; hunters normally carry the crown at 3.
Case types also changed with winding: key-wound watches gave way to keyless (stem-wound) mechanisms after Adrien Philippe's and others' designs of the 1840s, with pendant setting or lever setting.
What to look for
- Crown position relative to the seconds dial: at 3 for hunters, at 12 for open-face watches.
- Spring-loaded front cover with a push-piece in the pendant.
- Half-hunter chapter ring enamelled on the lid.
- Key holes in the inner dome (cuvette) versus keyless winding.
Dating clues
- Keyless winding spread after c. 1850 and became standard by c. 1890.
- English hallmarks inside gold and silver cases give the year of assay.
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:Detached lever escapement
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