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Pocket Watches · Pocket watch

Pocket watch, c. 1800

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
Unrecorded in source
Date
c. 1800
Country of origin
Unrecorded in source
Object type
Pocket watch
Dimensions
Höhe: 7.60 cm, Tiefe: 2.50 cm, Durchmesser: 5.30 cm
Holding institution
German Clock Museum
Accession / object no.
K-0162 (inventory number) 56226 (technical number)
Credit line
German Clock Museum
Catalogue title (original)
Taschenuhr mit Kalender, um 1800 (German)

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by German Clock Museum (object number K-0162 (inventory number) 56226 (technical number)), this is a pocket watch, dated c. 1800. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Recorded dimensions: Höhe: 7.60 cm, Tiefe: 2.50 cm, Durchmesser: 5.30 cm. The record is illustrated with 4 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 German Clock Museum

Taschenuhr mit großem Sekundenzeiger, Wochentag und Monatsdatum, Hersteller unbekannt, um 1800 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen)

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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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

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

Calendar, moon-phase and perpetual calendar watches

Calendar complications range from a simple date to the perpetual calendar, which automatically allows for months of different lengths and leap years until 2100. Pocket watches with perpetual calendars were made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Patek Philippe made the first perpetual calendar wristwatch in 1925, and series production followed in 1941. The annual calendar (Patek Philippe, 1996) needs correction only once a year.

Moon-phase displays use a disc with two moons and 59 teeth advanced daily, approximating the 29.5-day lunation; more precise trains reduce the error to one day in over a century.

What to look for

  • Apertures or subsidiary dials for day, date, month and leap year.
  • Moon disc under a 'bosom' shaped aperture.
  • Recessed correctors on the case band for setting the calendar.

Dating clues

  • Triple-date wristwatches: popular c. 1940–1955.
  • Perpetual calendar wristwatches: from 1925 (unique) and 1941 (series).

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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