Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Quarter Repeating Chronometer by Ganthony, circa 1820
- Maker / attribution
- Ganthony (maker)
- Date
- c. 1820
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Stock no.
- A1338
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Pieces of Time (A1338)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Quarter Repeating Chronometer by Ganthony (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Pieces of Time (dealer), London (stock number A1338), this is a pocket watch by Ganthony, dated c. 1820. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. The record is illustrated with 6 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
Dealer description — Pieces of Time
A large early 19 th Century quarter repeating chronometer by Ganthony in a purpose made silver open face case. Full plate gilt keywind fusee movement, barrel under a bridge with blue steel setup ratchet and spring. Harrison’s maintaining power. Plain cock with diamond endstone in a polished steel setting, polished steel regulator with bimetallic temperature compensation curb, gilt index on the plate. Plain three arm gold balance with deep rim, blue steel spiral hairspring. Screwed in jewelling. Earnshaw type spring detent escapement, jewelled locking and discharge, escape pivots with endstones. Push pendant quarter repeating on two blue steel gongs. White enamel dial with subsidiary seconds, Roman numerals, blue steel seconds hand, gold hands. Substantial purpose made plain silver open face case hallmarked London 1873. Silver push pendant and bow, wound through the plain silver cuvette, maker’s mark "JW & Co" in a rectangle, number corresponding to that on the movement.
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
Repeating watches
Before electric light, telling the time in the dark was a real problem. Repeating watches strike the time on demand when a slide or push-piece is operated: quarter repeaters sound hours and quarters, minute repeaters hours, quarters and minutes. Edward Barlow and Daniel Quare disputed the invention in London in the 1680s. Early repeaters struck on a bell inside the case; Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced the gong (a coiled steel wire) around 1780, allowing thinner watches.
Repeaters require a separate train with racks, snails and a governor to control the striking speed, and are among the most demanding complications to make and adjust. Swiss makers of the Vallée de Joux specialised in repeating ébauches in the nineteenth century.
What to look for
- A slide on the case band or a push-piece through the pendant.
- Gongs encircling the movement (after c. 1780) or a bell in the case (earlier); pierced case for sound.
- The racks, snails and governor visible under the dial or on the movement.
- Terms such as 'Minutes', 'Quarts' or 'Répétition' on the dial or cuvette.
Dating clues
- Bell-striking quarter repeaters: c. 1690–1800.
- Gong repeaters and dumb repeaters (striking on the case): after c. 1780.
- Minute repeaters became more common after c. 1830 with Vallée de Joux ébauches.
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:Minute repeaterMinute repeater
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