English chronometer with unusual seconds Circa 1818

Gold pocket chronometer with unusual seconds
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A fine English 18 carat gold consular cased pocket chronometer with unusual seconds, circa 1818. Gilt full plate movement, Arnold’s spring detent escapement with Harrison’s maintaining power, free-sprung bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel helical spring, decoratively engraved cock with grotesque mask, diamond endstone.
White enamel dial, Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds calibrated in four-second divisions, gold hands, and blued steel subsidiary seconds hand.
Plain case, hinged back revealing fixed gold cuvette with winding aperture, case with maker’s mark LC incuse for Louis Comtesse. Dial and movement signed.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: Barraud Cornhill London
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This watch is an 1818 updating by Barraud of an earlier watch probably supplied by George Jamison to him, circa 1800.
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In a letter addressed to Will Andrewes, then curator of the Time Museum, on November 22nd, 1978, Cedric Jagger proposes an explanation for the four-second divisions. He
notes that, with an escapement beating two-fifths, the second hand coincides with every other division only, so that on a conventional ring it will not always meet exactly with the
numbered divisions. The seconds ring layout on this dial, therefore, allows for a more precise reading. The movement incorporates Harrison’s maintaining power which was
designed to prevent the watch from stopping whilst being wound. When such watches were used for navigational purposes, the consequences of a stopped watch are obvious, since it
could impact the correct charting of a ship’s position, thereby endangering the crew.
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Paul Philip Barraud was born in London on 5th December 1752. He was admitted to the Clockmakers’ Company in 1796 and elected Master in 1810 and 1811. With the help of George Jamison and William Howells, he was able to offer a simplified version of Mudge’s chronometers Green and Blue, to the Admiralty at a price of 90 Guineas.