English silver pair cased verge watch with date Circa 1700

Silver verge in pair cases by Massy
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A high-quality English silver pair cased verge pocket watch with date, circa 1700. Full plate movement, verge escapement, chain and fusee, very finely engraved ring balance with mock pendulum, a fine engraved balance cock. Silver champlevé dial with Roman hours and Arabic five-minute numerals, aperture for the date. Plain outer and inner case. Dial signed, movement signed and numbered.
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Diameter: 59 mm
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Weight: 160 g
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Signed: Massy London
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Henry Massy, clock- and watchmaker, active from 1692 to 1745 in Charles Street – St. James, London. A member of the Clockmakers’ Company from 1692 to 1745. His father Nicolas Massy II of Blois, France, had come to London as a refugee, where he worked in Cranbourn Street. He had been a member of the Clockmakers’ Company from 1682 on and died in 1698. Nicolas II and Henry were descendants of Nicolas Massy I, a renowned watchmaker in Blois, who became a master in 1623 and married in the same year. He was elected juré of the guild in 1646 and died in 1658. It is assumed that the Massy family never broke their ties to Blois.