Early English silver astronomical verge watch Circa 1690

Watch with retrograde hour and day and night indication 
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An early astronomical verge watch with day and night indicator and retrograde hour, made by Robert Nelson in London, England, circa 1690. This open faced and pair cased pocket watch, which was crafted from silver, has a beautiful protective case with lateral hinge, a ray skin covering centrally decorated with a flower, an inner silver case, a wonderful engraving with floral vines, birds, mythical creatures and centrally a child’s portrait and the master’s punch “B” with crown. The dial has a window for day and night indication, Arabic five minutes numerals, retrograde hour indication with Roman numerals and a steel minute hand. The movement has an early English verge escapement with beautiful tulip pillars and an early hairspring.
Dial and movement are signed.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Weight: 104 g
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Signed: Robert Nelson London
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Retrograde hour indication
A display is said to be of the retrograde type when the indicator does not make a complete turn of the dial, but instead returns to its starting point and begins running again after covering its entire measurement segment. This is usually by means of a hand moving across the arc of a circle. In addition to retrograde displays for cyclical time indications such as hours, minutes, seconds or dates, there are also so called “sweeping type” retrograde displays such as for a power reserve.
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Robert Nelson
Robert Nelson was listed from 1684-1698.