Early English silver and leather pair cased verge watch Circa 1690

Silver and leather pair cased watch by Daniel Quare
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An English verge clock watch in silver and leather-covered case with gold and silver studs, circa 1690.
Gilt full plate single fusee verge movement with four Egyptian pillars and a three-arm steel balance. The backplate features a finely symmetrical foliate scroll pierced and engraved balance cock flanked by silvered regulation discs. The silver champlevé dial has Roman numerals with half-hour divisions, an outer Arabic minute ring, blued steel hands, an outer gilded ring, and central cartouches with scrolling foliage to the borders. The timepiece comes with two cases: an outer case that is silver and leather-covered with silver and gold studs and an inner case that is silver polished. The movement is signed D. Quäre of London, while the dial bears the signature Quäre.
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Diameter: 57 mm
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Signed: D. Quäre London
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Daniel Quare was a highly esteemed English watchmaker. Born circa 1647 in Somerset, and died August 1724. He was admitted to the Clockmakers’ Company in 1671, becoming a master in 1708. Quare established himself as an important horological innovator by inventing a type of repeating work around 1680. Whilst he was developing his repeating mechanism, his rival, Edward Barlow, was developing his own version. Barlow had invented the rack form of striking in 1676, and in 1685, Thomas Tompion made a watch for Barlow that incorporated the latter’s repeating system. Three years later, in 1688, Quare and Barlow presented their different forms of repeating watches to King James II in order that he might declare which he regarded the superior. The King favoured Quare’s form, noting that Barlow’s required two pushers, one for the hour strike and one for the quarters, whilst Quare’s single push-piece activated both the hours and quarters.