Litherland Davies & Co, the "something" there is some function?

[sternerp]

Hi all forum readers!
I bought one english pocket watch movement from manufacture Litherland Davies & Co. It has massey type 3 escapement, serial number is: 11710. (On the site 18kt Gold Consular Case Massey Lever Watch by Litherland, Davies & Company | Sale Number 2502, Lot Number 440 | Skinner Auctioneers has an another Litherland pocket watch, with serial 11696, and hallmarked 1826.)
When i looked better under lupe, i've seen interesting things: on the gear shaft has half spherical shape "something". Earlier i saw nothing such a thing. Have been seen someone like that? There is some function maybe?
On the last two pictures i marked these with a red circle.
Best regards! Peter

 

[gmorse]

Hi Peter,

What you see are the wheel collets; when a wheel isn't riveted to the pinion end, it's riveted to a brass collet which is a press fit on the plain arbor. This method of construction is quite normal in English watches.

Regards,

Graham

 

[novicetimekeeper]

can you use collets to help with dating as with clocks? They clearly don't follow the same ranges if you can as those would be early 18th century.

 

[gmorse]

Hi Nick,

can you use collets to help with dating as with clocks? They clearly don't follow the same ranges if you can as those would be early 18th century.

I don't think there's such a clear date correlation with watches as there is with clocks, but from what I've seen and handled, the collets were domed from the late 17th through to roughly the middle of the 18th centuries, after which they became flatter and more disc-shaped.

Regards,

Graham