Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Victorian silver 'Patent Lever Chronograph Greenwich Timekeeper' centre seconds chronograph, hallmarked Birmingham 1886
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1886 (hallmarked Birmingham)
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Dimensions
- Diameter 60 mm
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 26, lot 375
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 375, The Watch Auction, Gardiner Houlgate (26th October 2022)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Victorian silver 'Patent Lever Chronograph Greenwich Timekeeper' centre seconds chronograph lever pocket watch, Birmingham 1886, three quarter plate movement with compensated balance and regulator, hi (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 26, lot 375), this is a pocket watch, made in England, dated 1886 (hallmarked Birmingham). The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: silver. Recorded dimensions: Diameter 60 mm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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 — Gardiner Houlgate
Victorian silver 'Patent Lever Chronograph Greenwich Timekeeper' centre seconds chronograph lever pocket watch, Birmingham 1886, three quarter plate movement with compensated balance and regulator, hinged cuvette, the dial with Roman numerals, minute track, 25/300 scale and blued steel chronograph centre seconds, within a plain case with engraved cartouche and applied gold hinges, 60mm (chronograph lever requires attention)
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Machine production with interchangeable parts, pioneered by Waltham (1850s) and adopted by Elgin, Longines, Omega and others, made reliable lever watches widely affordable. Keyless winding became standard, railroad watch standards were introduced (1890s), and Swiss and American industries competed globally.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific Horology
Atlas type guide
Chronographs and split-seconds watches
A chronograph is a watch with an additional seconds hand that can be started, stopped and returned to zero independently of the timekeeping. Louis Moinet built an early example in 1816 and Nicolas Rieussec a recording 'chronographe' in 1821; Adolphe Nicole's heart-shaped reset cam (patented 1862) made the modern return-to-zero possible. Split-seconds (rattrapante) chronographs add a second hand that can be stopped for intermediate times; flyback chronographs restart instantly.
Chronographs were essential tools for doctors (pulsometer scales), artillery (telemeter), engineers and sport. In wristwatches, Valjoux, Venus, Lemania and later the automatic chronographs of 1969 (Zenith El Primero, the Chronomatic Calibre 11 group and Seiko 6139) are milestones.
What to look for
- Push-pieces on the case band or a single button in the crown (monopusher).
- Subsidiary registers for minutes and hours; tachymeter, telemeter or pulsometer scales.
- Column wheel versus cam control visible in the movement.
- Calibre markings of specialist makers (Valjoux, Lemania, Venus, Landeron).
Dating clues
- Pocket chronographs with heart cam reset: after 1862.
- Wrist chronographs: from c. 1910; two-button designs from the 1930s.
- Automatic chronographs: from 1969.
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:Flyback chronographChronograph
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