English 18K gold lever watch with power reserve Circa 1877

Gold lever by Victor Kullberg
–
An English 18 carat gold open faced free-sprung keyless fusee lever watch with power reserve by Victor Kullberg, London hallmark for 1877. Gilt half plate reverse fusee movement jewelled to the third wheel with chatons, right angle escapement, free-sprung bimetallic balance, blued spring with overcoil, diamond endstone, 18K gold cuvette pierced to expose winding and setting arbours, the stem setting mechanism engaged by opening the bezel, signed and numbered.
White enamel dial with Roman chapters, subsidiary seconds, 30-hour winding indicator and blued steel hands within a plain 18K gold case hallmarked London 1877, case maker John Martin.
–
Diameter: 53 mm
–
Signed: Victor Kullberg London
–
Victor Kullberg (1824-1890) was one of the most respected chronometer makers of the late 19th century. Born in Sweden and trained by Louis-Urban Jürgensen in Copenhagen, he established his firm in London in the 1850s. He produced chronometers not only under his own name but also supplied other prominent chronometer makers with his work. By the 1870s he had won numerous prize medals and in 1882 a Kullberg chronometer was judged the finest ever submitted to the Greenwich Trials. His work is characterized by the use of a reverse fusee whose opposite sense of rotation divided the pull of the chain between the centre wheel and fusee, thus reducing pivot wear.