English lever pocket watch with detachable key Circa 1877

Back

English fusee lever pocket watch with detachable key Circa 1877

Kenmerk: PA0331
Diameter: 51 mm

Estimate: € 500 - 1.000
Price sold: € 1.000

Silver English lever with Lund’s patent key
–

An English fusee lever with detachable key, hallmarked London circa 1877. Gilt three quarter plate key wind movement with fusee and chain. Harrison’s maintaining power. Engraved cock with diamond end stone, polished steel regulator and silver sector index. Compensation balance with blue steel spiral hairspring. English table roller lever escapement. Signed white enamel dial with subsidiary seconds, Roman numerals, blue steel seconds hand, gold hands. Faded engine turned silver open face case with ribbed middle, the movement hinging out. The watch has the appearance of being keyless as it has a winding crown. This is the detachable key: it pulls out of the pendant and may be used to set the hands or wind the watch. Maker’s mark ‘SF’ in a rectangle and number corresponding to that on the movement.
–

Diameter: 51 mm
–
Signed: Lund Bros 41 Cornhill London

–
Mr. A. J. Lund patented the feature of the detachable key on 29th March 1870, (No. 914). It was probably intended to provide an inexpensive answer to keyless going barrel watches while retaining a fusee. The idea did not seem successful, very few of these watches survived. They were made by Usher and Cole and often marketed under the name of Lund Bros from the premises of Barraud & Lund at 41 Cornhill. See Paul Phillipe Barraud by Cedric Jagger.

Signed: Lund Bros 41 Cornhill London