English 18k gold lever with six minute tourbillon Circa 1980

Unique gold tourbillon lever watch by A.G. Randall
–
A very fine, unique English 18 carat gold open faced keyless lever pocket lever chronometer with six minute tourbillon regulator, Hallmarked London 1980. Frosted gilt ½ plate movement, 20 jewels in screwed gold chatons, going barrel, lateral lever escapement, including the fourth wheel to reduce the speed of rotation from the more conventional one minute period, two armed bimetallic compensation balance with gold temperature and meantime adjustment screws, freesprung blued steel balance spring with terminal curve, the end pinned to a steel stud screwed to the cock, six minute tourbillon regulator with Randall gilt brass carriage, diamond endstone. White enamel dial with Roman numerals, outer minute track and subsidiary seconds, original blued steel pear hands. Polished case, mastermark MRM for Mathews, glazed gold rimmed cover to view the movement. Dial signed by Joseph White & Son, movement signed by A.G. Randall.
–
Diameter: 58 mm
–
Signed: Makers to the Admiralty Jospeh White & Son Coventry & London – A.G. Randall Birmingham
–
Anthony G. Randall was born in 1938 at Beaconsfield (Bucks). Since toys could not be bought during this period, children were forced to invent their own amusements using second hand toys or what they could make for themselves. This contributed to an early fascination with mechanical objects which gradually turned to mending and repair. At the age of nine, Randall was sent to boarding school at Eastbourne. In his mid-teens, still at school, he was repairing docks and watches on a regular basis and began to pester local jewelers for tools and materials. He was offered a parttime job in Eastbourne, from Geoff Lee. Here he helped to repair clocks, especially carriage docks requiring a great deal of hard work, receiving instruction and tools in lieu of payment. Unfortunately, at the time, career prospects at the bench in horology were not good, so Randall continued his education at Manchester University, finishing in 1960 with a degree in physics. Thereafter followed short spells in business with his father and then with the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company working largely on their Scanning Electron Microscope project.