Recent content by Lychnobius

I now see what you mean, John. I took the double reflection visible on the fourth-wheel jewel as an indication that this had a recess at its centre and thus was not capped, and I also assumed that the escape-wheel jewel (partly hidden by the balance rim) was of the same nature; but I in turn may...

A small point: I would reckon the jewel count as 11, assuming that the two jewels visible in the back plate are matched by others under the dial. The escape-wheel and fourth wheel seem to be jewelled whereas the lever and third wheel are not. this does not mean that it is a low-grade movement...

This must be a very late verge, since British makers (whose style, as Graham has said, is being very closely followed here) rarely used the recessed seconds panel on enamel dials until the late 1850s – though admittedly the Swiss seem to have adopted it in the domestic market somewhat earlier...

Allan Purcell for one may have something to add, as may Graham, but meanwhile I feel sure that Andrew is right. The regulator scale with its central star suggests that the movement too was made or at least worked on in Coventry. The compensated balance is a bonus point; this feature was still...

Thank you, Graham; I should have thought of that! I have of course seen the corresponding adjuster on English repeaters, where there is usually no scale or pointer and the plug is slotted for a screwdriver instead of being squared for a key. Incidentally, you have solved a puzzle for me in the...

It would seem, then, that this watch has two separate means of regulation! If Peter can find the watch, it would be most interesting to have another side view showing what is between the plates directly under the 'V/L' pointer. The only parallel to this feature I have seen is in a very exotic...

Welcome, Agnes, and thank you for this glimmer of light! We will have to investigate why Martin's thorough researches ten years ago did not trace Robert Bowers; as he said, there are gaps in the records for the Chester office. Silver-gilt cases were not unknown in the early nineteenth century...

Thanks to Andrew for making this valuable document available. Oliver Mundy.

This appears to be a very late example of a traditional English key-wound watch; the industry was dying, having failed to keep pace with Swiss and American developments, and many so-called watchmakers were by this time supplying bought-in Swiss watches instead. It would be interesting to see the...

If you look at the movement edgeways, between the plates, is there a wheel with teeth that stand upright on the rim like the teeth of a comb instead of radiating outwards from it? I shall add a picture showing the kind of wheel I mean. If the Prior watch has one of these so-called contrate...

Allan, have you (or has anyone) come across a genuine Roskell engraved with the kind of wording mentioned in the 1954 letter ('Duplex Escapement, Full Jewelled')? 'Full Jewelled', especially , sounds to me like the sort of thing one finds on the cuvettes of Swiss watches. On the other hand, the...

The image below shows the appearance of typical 19th-century English cannon-pinions: (left) small English-lever movement by John Wycherley, Prescot, Lancashire, c. 1870; (right) rack-lever movement signed William Broad, London, c. 1815. Still earlier examples differ (usually) in that the...

Thank you both for these suggestions. My watches are British fusee pocket-watches from between about 1760 and 1860. In my admittedly limited experience, the steel used in both pinions and arbors is brittle and not at all pliant, so that any attempt at either squeezing or bending would be likely...

Is there any way of dealing with the situation where a cannon pinion is no longer a tight fit on the centre-wheel arbor, so that (for example) the minute-hand can be moved by one's finger? The problem with this, of course, is that the reduced frictional adherence between the pinion and the arbor...

I thought I knew something about lettering, but I have never seen an F written or printed like that! However, JTD's and Enrico's information seems conclusive. Oliver Mundy.