Silver cased coach watch with hour striking, alarm and lunar and calendar indications

Description — British Museum

MOVEMENT Circular gilt-brass plates with five baluster pillars. Gilt-brass barrel with ratchet and click set-up. Fusee for gut line but now with chain; standard stop-work. Three-wheel going train terminating with a verge escapement. Verge, balance and balance-cock all replaced, probably when the balance spring and slide regulator were fitted (early 18th century ?). : Striking train for hours only, powered by a gilt-brass fixed barrel with geared stop-work, and controlled by a count-wheel. : Alarm train powered by a fixed gilt-brass barrel with geared stop-work. Second, contrate and crown wheels made from steel. : DIAL & HANDS Gilt-brass dial plate with a silver dial. The dial is divided into a number of subsidiaries:- 1. Top, a sector aperture for months. 2. Upper left, an applied gilt-brass chapter-ring 0-30 for the date enclosing a sector aperture showing the days of the week. 3. Upper right, an applied gilt-brass chapter-ring, engraved 1-29.5 for the age of the moon with a circular aperture to show the phase of the moon. 4. Lower left, a sector aperture showing the periods of the day. 5. Lower right, a sector aperture showing the seasons. 6. Bottom, a gilt-brass applied ring engraved I-XII for the hours, surrounding a gilt-brass alarm-setting disc. Blued-steel hands, the alarm-setting hand now missing. : CASES Silver inner case pierced and engraved with a design of realistic flowers. The glazed silver bezel is not original. Gilt-brass pendant. Inside the case a large bell is screwed to a square boss. Leather covered brass outer case with silver rims and silver piqué decoration.

Curator's comments — British Museum

Watch-key has been registered additionally as CAI.2974. Text from 'Watches', by David Thompson, London, 2008, p. 44-45. Jean Baptiste Duboule SILVER CASED HOUR-STRIKING VERGE COACH WATCH WITH CALENDAR AND ALARM GENEVA, c. 1650 SIGNED: 'Jean Baptiste Duboule AGeneve' Jean Baptiste Duboule was baptized in Geneva on 4 June 1615 and died on 6 April 1694 at the age of seventy-nine. The second son of the watchmaker Martin Duboule and his wife Suzanne, née Martin, he was probably apprenticed to his father, but by 1638 he had become a master in his own right and began taking apprentices, continuing to do so until 1682. He is mentioned in records in Geneva as a master watchmaker and as a master engraver. He was married in 1638 to Catherine Fusy with whom he had three daughters: Catherine, who married Abraham Dupuis, a master watch-casemaker; Lucrèce, who married Henri Martin, a master watchmaker, in 1667; and Jaquemine, who married Philippe Prodhomme, a citizen of Geneva. This watch, made around 1645, is one of Jean Baptiste Duboule's finest pieces. It is far too large to wear: at about 10 centimetres (4 inches) in diameter, it weighs a great deal more than would be comfortable to carry around the neck, and hung from a belt would surely have one's breeches off! It is in fact a coach or chaise watch, in effect the complete traveller's companion. As well as telling the time, it strikes the hours, has an alarm and was intended to be carried on journeys and hung on a stout hook on the wall or the bedstead to ensure that the traveller did not miss breakfast and the morning departure of the coach. The finely pierced and engraved silver case is of high quality, with pierced decoration around the band to allow the sound of the bell to escape. However, it is without doubt the dial that draws one's attention. At the top there is a sector aperture showing the months and the signs of the zodiac. To the right a large dial shows the age and phase of the moon, useful in a time without street lights. To the lower right an aperture shows the seasons. At the bottom a gilt chapter ring and blued-steel pointer show the hours, and in its centre a pierced and engraved dial serves to indicate the alarm time (there should be a blued-steel hand over this to set the alarm).To the lower left a sector aperture shows the periods of the day and above that, in the middle left, the gilt chapter ring shows the date, while an aperture within it displays the days of the week, each named in Latin and illustrated by its ruling planet. The movement is also something of a tour de force of the watchmaker's art and presents a challenge for the repairer. It is put together in a way known as full-plate construction, which means that, when re-assembling, all the components must be in the right place and the right relationship with each other so that, when the rear plate is fitted, the going, the striking and the alarm will all perform correctly. An interesting aspect of this coach watch becomes apparent when the back plate is examined. Close inspection shows that the balance cock is more modern than the watch and that the original balance has been replaced with one fitted with a balance spring and a geared regulator. The style of the work might suggest that it was carried out in London in the early part of the eighteenth century. Such improvements were not uncommon, and were made to increase the efficiency of watches that would otherwise have become obsolete following the new improved timekeeping made possible by the introduction of the balance spring in 1675.