
Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Silver Octavy Johann pair cased sun and moon verge watch, 1720
- Maker / attribution
- Octavy Johann (maker)
- Date
- 1720
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Dimensions
- Case 53 mm
- Stock no.
- G2400
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Somlo Antiques (G2400)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Silver Octavy Johann pair cased sun and moon verge watch. Made 1720 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Somlo Antiques (dealer), London (stock number G2400), this is a pocket watch by Octavy Johann, dated 1720. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver. Recorded dimensions: Case 53 mm. 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 — Somlo Antiques
By the early 18th century, the standard dial layout featuring concentric hour and minute hands had become the most widely used configuration, however in late 17th-century London, a trend emerged for distinctive and unconventional clock dials. Among the most popular designs was the "sun-and-moon dial." Brand: Octavy Johann Dennicken Konigsberg Made: 1720 Model: Pocketwatch Reference: N/A Calibre: - Movement: G ilded full plate with verge escapement, silver balance cock decoratively pierced and engraved with three birds carrying a tortoise, broad cock foot engraved with scrolling foliage, plain brass pillars each mounted with a pierced and engraved eagle each holding a different attribute including a sword and an anchor, silver regulation disc, fuseé and chain Material: Silver Features/complications: Signed Octavy Johann Dennicken, Konigsberg. O uter tortoiseshell covered case with silver piqué work depicting a stylised flower to the centre and four coronets to the edge, the front bezel with further pin work decoration plain pendant Dial: Silver champlevé dial with large aperture with rotating disc divided into day and night, hours indicated on an outer semi-circular chapter ring with Roman numerals heightenedwith black wax, daytime hours indicated by a golden sun with pointer, night hours indicated by a silver moon with pointer surrounded by silver stars, the sun and moon against a blued steel sky, outer Arabic minute ring and a single steel hand. Lower half of the dial with two eagles supporting signed banners Case dimensions: 53mm Bracelet/strap: N/A Accessories: - SKU: 2400
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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