English Detent Chronometer Pocket Watch, ca. 1860
Watch
GUEST:
This was a pocket watch that I bought at an antique shop in London. From what I know about it, it was made mid-1800s, give or take. It was made to commemorate the restoration of the British crown, the 200th anniversary of that. So the movement inside is very special, carved in the shape of the British crown. And then it was meant to be presented to the royal family, but for some reason never was. Changed hands a few times, and then ended up in this antique shop.
APPRAISER:
Fascinating story, can you tell me how much you paid for it and when you did purchase it?
GUEST:
A thousand pounds, and I bought it about 15 years ago. So I do collect watches, actually. I don't have very many, but I have about a half a dozen of them. I started wearing three-piece suits when I was in high school, and I figured that it made sense if I was going to wear a vest, to have a pocket watch to put in it. So I've been collecting them for a little while now.
APPRAISER:
It's a wonderful watch, and a lot of the intrigue about watches lies inside with the mechanism. The quality and the accuracy that they could achieve in the mid-1800s-- and you are correct, it is from 1860, roughly, give or take. It's a fusee driven watch. It's a solid gold case, massive, 18-karat gold. And on the inner cover, it actually says "chronometer." Chronometer is the generalized term that means accurate, very high quality timekeeper.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
When I open it up, there's where it really shines as a timepiece.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
It's decorative, it has the royal crown set with stones, it has ruby jewels. And then it has another feature, which is very unusual.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
It's a detent chronometer escapement. The detent chronometer is very accurate. It releases the time and the power in fractional seconds, rather than sweeping along at a regular rate. Also the secondary feature, which is unusual, is the blue hairspring, which is controlling the balance wheel. Instead of being flat and circular, it comes up in a helical curve.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
A very wonderful timepiece and extremely accurate. It would have been really an award-winning timepiece. The watch has all the characteristics of being a special order watch for a special occasion, yet without provenance we can't really determine that. All we know is it was a one-of-a-kind watch when it was produced initially.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Do you have any idea of value, if you got a good buy?
GUEST:
I... honestly I would never sell it, even if I did have a good offer. But I mean I hope that it's worth at least as much as I paid for it.
APPRAISER:
For insurance value, in today's market, I would put a value of $10,000 on the watch.
GUEST:
Oh, wow. Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Wonderful piece.
GUEST:
That's... and a good buy.
APPRAISER:
You made a very good buy.
GUEST:
Yeah, thank you so much.
Appraisal Details
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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