
Movements & Components · Pocket watch movement
Pocket Watch Movement - England, c. 1880-1925
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1880-1925
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Pocket watch movement
- Dimensions
- 1 cm (Width), 3.4 cm (Outside Diameter)
- Holding institution
- Museums Victoria, Melbourne
- Accession / object no.
- ST 17687
- Catalogue title (original)
- Pocket Watch Movement - England, circa 1880-1925 (English)
View the source record ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Museums Victoria, Melbourne (object number ST 17687), this is a pocket watch movement, made in England, dated c. 1880-1925. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Movements & Components collection. Recorded dimensions: 1 cm (Width), 3.4 cm (Outside Diameter). 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
Summary — Museums Victoria
Pocket watch movement, England, circa 1880-1925.
Physical description — Museums Victoria
White enamel dial with roman numerals. Key wound spring; lever escapement.
Inscriptions & marks
Back plate is marked '19568'.
Provenance
Donation from Larard Bros, 16 Jul 1925
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Precision lever movements, electric clock mechanisms and new alloys (invar, elinvar) characterised the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore movements & components from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Clock and watch movements
The movement is the mechanism of a clock or watch, without its case and dial. It consists of the power source (weight or mainspring in its barrel, sometimes with a fusee), the going train of wheels and pinions, the escapement and oscillator, the motion work that drives the hands, and in many cases additional trains for striking or complications.
From the eighteenth century watch movements were increasingly produced in stages: Swiss and French ébauche makers supplied rough movements that finishers, repasseurs and retailers completed and signed. Calibre numbers — first used systematically by American and Swiss factories in the nineteenth century — make it possible to identify movements, find spare parts and date watches.
What to look for
- Plate and bridge layout: full plate, three-quarter plate, Lépine bar calibre, bridges and cocks.
- Jewel count and whether jewels are set in chatons or rubbed in.
- Signatures, calibre and serial numbers on the plate or under the dial.
- Finishing: Geneva stripes (Côtes de Genève), perlage, bevelled edges, blued screws.
- Fusee and chain, going barrel, or electrical components.
Dating clues
- Full-plate English movements dominate before c. 1850; three-quarter plate and Lépine calibres after.
- Jewelled movements spread after Facio and Debaufre's patent of 1704, mainly in English work until c. 1800.
- Calibre numbers and factory serials allow close dating for industrial production after 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.
Read next:FuseeVerge escapement
Related records
Movements & Components · 1903
Chronometer escapement mounted as an exhibition model and housed in a domed glazed case. Made by William T. Hayes.
Science Museum Group, London
Movements & Components · 1905
Pendulum from the time recorder, by the British Time Recorder Co. Ltd, London, England, 1940-1970
Science Museum Group, London
Movements & Components · 1915–1916
Clock case, England, 1915–1916
Science Museum Group, London
Movements & Components · 1923–1925
Pendulum from the English Reifler escapement astronomical clock designed by E. T. Cottingham, by Thomas Mercer & Co, St. Albans, England, 1923–1925
Science Museum Group, London
Movements & Components · 1923–1925
Pendulum suspension from the English Reifler escapement astronomical clock designed by E. T. Cottingham, by Thomas Mercer & Co, St. Albans, England, 1923–1925
Science Museum Group, London
Movements & Components · 1930–1940
Pendulum from the example of the free pendulum clock, by Captain Edwin .E. Craig, Hindhead, Surrey, England, 1930–1940
Science Museum Group, London
Movements & Components · before 1935
Pendulum from the Shortt free pendulum clock, by the Synchronome Company Limited, London, United Kingdom, 1920-1940
Science Museum Group, London
Movements & Components · before 1935
Pendulum top palette from the Shortt free pendulum clock, by the Synchronome Company Limited, London, United Kingdom, 1920-1940
Science Museum Group, London
