English 22K gold chronometer pocket watch Circa 1794

Gold pocket watch by John Arnold & Son
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A very fine and rare English 22 carat gold chronometer pocket watch, London hallmarked for 1794. Full plate gilt-brass movement with pierced and engraved balance cock, ruby endstone, Arnold OZ balance, blue steel helical balance spring and Earnshaw escapement, plates separated by four pinned pillars.
White enamel dial with black Roman numerals, Arabic subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o’clock and blue steel hands.
Polished consular case stamped with maker’s mark T.H. for Thomas Hardy.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Signed: John Arnold & Son London
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This watch features in Hans Staeger’s 1997 publication “100 Years of Precision Timekeepers from John Arnold to Arnold and Frodsham, 1763 – 1862”.
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This watch was one of seven taken by the British Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne’s assistant Joseph Lindley to Paris and back on tests in 1785.
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John Arnold (1736-1799) was apprenticed to his father in Cornwall and established himself in London in around 1760. He was admitted to the Clockmakers’ Company in 1783. Arnold was the first to employ the term chronometer in the modern sense and successfully found a way to simplify Harrison’s timekeeper design. In 1787 he took his son, John Roger Arnold, into partnership, changing the business name to “Arnold & Son”, which it retained until his death.

Hand missing.