Pocket Watches · Alarm watch
Silver cased verge watch with alarm
- Maker / attribution
- Pierre Chataigner (Made by)
- Date
- 1695–1710
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- Rochelle, La
- Object type
- Alarm watch
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 44.80 millimetres (dial) Diameter: 51.40 millimetres Thickness: 36.50 millimetres
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 1958,1201.820
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Silver cased verge watch with alarm (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 1958,1201.820), this is an alarm watch by Pierre Chataigner, made in Rochelle, La, France, dated 1695–1710. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Pocket Watches collection. Recorded dimensions: Diameter: 44.80 millimetres (dial) Diameter: 51.40 millimetres Thickness: 36.50 millimetres. 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
Description — British Museum
Verge escapement. Silver champlevé dial. Hands not original. Silver case, sides pierced and engraved. The pinion of report is mounted on an extended arbor of the second wheel. The rim of the case is made up of a detachable screwed on ring. The hammer of the strike train has been repaired. There would appear to be an original spring in the alarm barrel but the going spring is a replacement. Train count ::::::::::: Great wheel [fusee].50 Second wheel.48.10 Third wheel.44.6 Contrate wheel.42.6 Crown wheel.15.6 Pinion of report.8 Intermediate hour wheel.16 Intermediate hour wheel pinion.8 Hour wheel.64 Great wheel [alarm train].30 Second wheel.22.6 Contrate wheel.18.6 Crown wheel.7.6 Regulator pinion.12 Regulator sector.18 Set-up ratchet.22.
Inscriptions & marks
signature; P CHATAIGNER ALA ROCHELLE [back plate]; hallmark; Paris 1775-1781. [pendant]; bell maker's mark; Cast into the outside of the bell "B 200"; Scratched on the inside"913".; mark; October 1828 Duret [or] Duvet; The spring in the going barrel scratched "October 1828" and "Duret"or"Duvet"
Provenance
Previous owner/ex-collection:, Courtenay Adrian Ilbert; Purchased through:, Christie's; Acquired 1958
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
The balance spring (c. 1675) improved watches dramatically and introduced the minute hand. English pair-cased verge watches with pierced balance cocks and French oignons were typical; enamel painting at Blois and Geneva, and the repeating watch (1680s), made watches objects of great refinement.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology
Atlas type guide
Verge and pair-cased watches
After Christiaan Huygens and Robert Hooke applied the balance spring around 1675, the verge watch became a reasonably reliable timekeeper and the minute hand became standard. Through the eighteenth century the typical English watch was a pair-cased verge: a fusee movement with a pierced, engraved balance cock, housed in an inner case and a separate protective outer case, often of repoussé gold, shagreen, tortoiseshell or enamel.
French watches of the same period were thicker 'oignons', later replaced by elegant thinner watches following Jean-Antoine Lépine's bar-bridge calibre of c. 1770. Dutch, Swiss and German makers supplied international markets, and verge watches were made until the mid-nineteenth century as cheaper alternatives to the cylinder and lever.
What to look for
- The pierced balance cock on the backplate: winged (continental) or with a foot (English); its style dates the watch.
- Fusee and chain visible through the movement; key winding through the dial (early) or case back.
- Hallmarks inside English silver or gold cases, which give a date letter.
- Maker's name and serial number engraved on the backplate; watch papers inside outer cases.
- Enamel dials (after c. 1720) versus earlier champlevé metal dials.
Dating clues
- Champlevé dials: c. 1680–1730; white enamel dials thereafter.
- English case hallmarks give the year of assay to within a year.
- Verge watches persisted in cheap production until 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.
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