Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Unusual circa 1760 Verge Fusee Solid Gold & Silver Keywind French Paste Antique Pocket Watch
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1760
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- France
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- gold, paste, silver
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 209965662
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 8500, August Watches, Jewelry, and General Antiques, Hess Fine Auctions (2025), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- Unusual Circa 1760 Verge Fusee Solid Gold & Silver Keywind French Paste Antique Pocket Watch (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 209965662), this is a pocket watch, made in France, dated c. 1760. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: gold, paste, silver. The record is illustrated with 4 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
Lot description — Hess Fine Auctions
Described By: Dillon CNX 0181 0404 Title: Unusual Circa 1760 Verge Fusee Solid Gold & Silver Keywind French Paste Antique Pocket Watch Description: Unusual Circa 1760 Verge Fusee Solid Gold & Silver Keywind French Paste Antique Pocket Watch. Amazingly, this almost 300-year-old watch is still running! This watch is made of 30 percent gold and 39 percent silver, according to our XRF. As shown in the photos, the movement has been cased to protect the open escapement with a cage containing French paste. Comes in box w/ key! Condition: Preowned with some use but incredibly well preserved for age! White dial shows a few hairlines and minor surface chips. Crystal shows mild scuffing. Bezel shows some missing French paste. Case surround and stem shows some discoloration. Front lid does not close. See photos for details. Movement Condition: Movement is running, for optimum timekeeping accuracy we suggest an overhaul at buyers expense Case Diameter: 37 mm Case Thickness: 18.5 mm Material: 30 percent gold and 39 percent silver Circa: 1760 Estimated weight of piece: 39 grams Box & Papers: Box Estimated size of package: 9 x 6 x 3 Additional Info: If the winning bidder would like to arrange to pick up their item at our store, please notify us by email and we will make the appropriate shipping adjustments. Other Shipping Info:Zip Code 33701 CALCULATE SHIPPING COSTS HERE Important Info: Commonly Asked Questions
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
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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