English exquisite pair cased repeating pocket watch Circa 1770

Half-quarter repeater with an early cylinder escapement
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An exquisite English pair-cased half-quarter repeating pocket watch with an early cylinder escapement, circa 1770.
18-carat rose gold outer case, the case maker’s punch mark IF, London hallmark 1806. 18-carat rose gold inner case, florally engraved, pierced, signed movement protection cap Tho Mudge, W Dutton London, rear bell. White enamel dial, Roman numerals for the hours, Arabic numerals for the minutes, blued steel hands. Full plate movement, two hammers, chain/fusee, three-arm steel balance, signed.
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Diameter: 48 mm
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Weight: 141 g
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Signed: Thomas Mudge / William Dutton, London
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Thomas Mudge (1715-1794) apprenticed with George Graham in London and was admitted to the Freedom of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1738. After Graham died in 1751, he took over his business in Fleet Street. From 1755 to 1790, Mudge partnered with William Dutton, another of Graham’s apprentices. After 1771 Mudge almost exclusively concerned himself with the design of marine chronometers; he built a watch for the King of Spain, which had hour and minute repetition and displayed the equation of time. Mudge was the first to use an intermediate pinion in pocket watches and developed the detached lever escapement in 1760. The “Queen Charlotte watch” commissioned by King George III was the first pocket watch with this kind of escapement; it remains part of the Royal Collection.