Historically interesting English silver pocket chronometer Circa 1783

Silver open faced chronometer by John Arnold
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A historically interesting English silver open faced pocket chronometer, circa 1783. Full plate movement, Arnold’s spring detent escapement, OZ balance, helical gold balance spring, very finely engraved pierced balance cock. White enamel dial with Roman hours, outer minute divisions and subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock. Plain case, the back engraved This chronometer went round the world with Captain James Cook! And in the year 1816, was presented by the Hon”ble Hudsons Bay Comp.y to their secretary Alexander Lean efqr., case maker’s mark WW.
Dial and movement signed and numbered. Comes with the original mahogany box.
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Diameter: 54 mm
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Weight: 119 g
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Signed: Jn. Arnold London Invt. et Fecit
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The silver case is engraved with a dedication next to the compulsory hallmark and the date stamp of 1783. It states that the chronometer travelled around the world with Captain James Cook. Cook’s third and last voyage, however, lasted from 1776 to 1779 and the case of this piece was clearly not made until seven years later. Taking these facts into consideration in connection with several technical details of the chronometer – such as the spring detent escapement, the OZ balance and the cylindrical gold balance spring, which Arnold only started using around 1779 – it is probable that the case was created at a later date. It is very unlikely that the case would have been engraved with a dedication that was deliberately untruthful. It is certain that the case and the dial were made around 1783. Since we know that Captain Phipps already took an Arnold chronometer with spring detent escapement on his North Pole expedition in 1774, it is likely that the Arnold chronometer No. 43 was taken along for test purposes – in a different, moisture-repellent case – during Captain Cook’s last voyage. It is a fact that Commodore William Christopher of the Hudson’s Bay Company was present on the journey and it is assumed that either he or the Hudson’s Bay Company was the original owner of the chronometer. The Hudson’s Bay Company – one of the first public companies ever and one of the largest English trading companies, with the Honourable East India Company as their main competitor – must certainly have been interested in the results of chronometer testing. It is unfortunately not known whether an Arnold chronometer was tested in comparison with the Kendall chronometers No. 1 and No. 3 that were used during Cook’s third voyage. The goal of the expedition was the discovery of the Northwest Passage, which was of crucial importance not only to the British Admiralty but also to the Hudson’s Bay Company. It is likely though that Arnold’s chronometer No. 43 was used by Captain Christopher on this journey. Its subsequent owner Alexander Lean was presented with the chronometer for his services to the company. Lean was the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Secretary (today’s CEO) from 1792 to 1817. He is known for mapping the Northwest coast of Canada for the British Admiralty and was in close contact with members of the Royal Society – particularly so with Alexander Dalrymple, the Admiralty’s first hydrographer. Alexander Lean retired from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1817 with an annual pension of £400.
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John Arnold was born in 1736 and died on August 11^th, 1799. He was an English watchmaker and inventor. Arnold was apprenticed to his father, who was also a clockmaker in Bodmin, Cornwell and probably also worked with his uncle, a gunsmith. Around 1755, at the age of 19, he left England and worked as a watchmaker in the Hague, Holland, returning to England around 1757. In 1762, he met William McGuire on whom he made a sufficient impression and McGuire gave him a loan, enabling him to set up a workshop at Devereux Court, Strand, London. By the time he was 28, Arnold’s watches, be they verge or cylinder, displayed interesting original components such as straight-line compensation curbs and minute repeating by increments of 10 minutes instead of the more common 15 minutes. In 1764, Arnold obtained permission to present an exceptionally small half-quarter repeating watch with a cylinder escapement mounted in a ring to King George III. He made another watch for the King around 1768, which was a gold and enamel pair cased watch with a movement that had every refinement, including minute repetition and center seconds. It was around 1770 that Arnold developed a portable precision timekeeper. His basic design was simple whilst consistently accurate and mechanically reliable. Importantly, the relatively simple and conventional design of his movement facilitated its production in quantity at a reasonable price whilst also enabling easier maintenance and adjustment. He successfully found a way to simplify Harrison’s timekeeper design. He established himself at 2 Adam Street, Adelphi Buildings, Strand, in 1771 and researched marine chronometers here over the next eleven years. Arnold was the first to design a watch that was both practical and accurate, and also brought the chronometer into use in its modern sense, as a precision timekeeper. His technical progress enabled the quantity production of marine chronometers for use on board ships from around 1782. Arnold was admitted to the Clockmakers’ Company in 1783. The important French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet was a very good friend of Arnold. It appears Arnold gave Breguet permission to incorporate or develop any of Arnold’s inventions and techniques into his own watches. Arnold’s son John Roger Arnold was born in 1769 and served an apprenticeship with both his father and Abraham-Louis Breguet. In 1787, he and his father founded the company, Arnold & Son. John Arnold also appears to have been the first to think of the concept of the tourbillon. He seems to have experimented with his idea but died in 1799 before he could develop it further. It is known that Breguet made a successful and practical tourbillon mechanism around 1795 but, nevertheless, he acknowledged Arnold as the inventor by presenting his first tourbillon in 1808 to Arnold’s son John Roger. As a tribute to his friend Arnold Sr..