English rare gilt metal pair cased chronometer Circa 1795

Gilt metal pair cased chronometer watch
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A rare English gilt metal pair cased chronometer watch, circa 1795. It has a gilded full plate, pivoted detent escapement, plain flat three-armed balance, decoratively engraved balance cock, diamond endstone, fusee and chain, cylindrical pillars, gilt metal dust cap with decorative engraving around the cock aperture, and movement signed Sleightholm and Co., London. The white enamel dial features Roman numerals, an outer minute ring, subsidiary seconds, and skeletonized arrow hands. The plain cases have a D-shaped bow and flat top; the inner case bears the maker’s mark IR (possibly James Richards).
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Diameter: 63 mm
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Signed: Sleightholm and Co. London
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English watchmakers almost always used the spring detent escapement. Examples of the pivoted detent in English watches are rare from any period. John Arnold, for example, used the pivoted detent up to 1782 and the spring detent thereafter. The movement suggests Prescot or Liverpudlian origins, especially in the cock design. Interestingly, perhaps for cost reasons, the expensive escapement is unusually combined with a plain, un-compensated steel balance and flat spring. The pivot is placed at the extremity of the detent where the foot would have been if a spring detent had been used.

Although a late 18th-century maker, J. Sleightholm, is recorded by Brian Loomes in Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World (2nd Edition), there does not appear to be a record for Sleightholm and Company.