German rock crystal single handed pendant watch Circa 1600

Rock crystal pendant watch with stackfreed attributed to Conrad Kreizer
–
A fine, extremely rare, small German rock crystal and gilt metal single handed pre balance spring pendant watch with stackfreed, circa 1600 and polychrome champlevé enamel silver dial. Gilt brass full plate movement, column pillars, fixed barrel, C shaped stackfreed, short three wheel train pinions with six and five leaves, verge escapement, circular steel foliot, adjustable pivoted lever for hog’s bristle regulation, small brass S shaped cock with wide pierced and engraved foot secured by a screw. Octagonal, silver dial, chapter ring with champlevé enamel Roman numerals with half hour divisions, the border and center decorated with polychrome champlevé enamel flowers and leaves, original engraved gilt foliate hand. Octagonal case, deep back, cut from a single piece of rock crystal, faceted on the sides and the back, hinged rock crystal front cover similarly faceted with small central finial fixed to an engraved gilt bezel, small tulip pendant and turned spire finial with pierced and engraved scroll feet.
–
Dimensions: 50 x 27 mm
–
Signed: Attributed to Conrad Kreizer
–
In the early 17th century, small watches were very rare.
–
The stackfreed was designed to equalize the varying force of the mainspring. This was necessary because the rate of the foliot’s oscillation depends directly on the force with which the escape wheel acts upon it. The force transmitted to a watch’s escape wheel when fully wound is about twice that of when it is nearly run down. The need for an equalizing device was realized early in the development of horology, and the stack freed was a crude but relatively effective method of achieving this. It was made for a relatively short period before being superseded by the fusee. In a 26 hour watch, the action of the stackfreed spring causes constant high friction for the first 12 hours after winding, a slowly diminishing conflict for the next 6 hours, rapidly diminishing friction for the next 6 hours, and no friction for the last 1 or 2 hours. The stackfreed is only found in watches made in Germany and continued to be used there into the 17th century, even after the introduction of the fusee.
–
The Kreizer (also Kreiser and Kraiserer) family was a veritable dynasty of watchmakers, with at least four individuals bearing the same Christian name. Some uncertainty exists as to whether Conrad III and IV were not, in fact, the same person. Still, one of the Kreizers held the position of clockmaker to the Knights of the Grand Cross of Malta, and several watches use their characteristic cross as the form for the pendant. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a cruciform watch by him.