English gold pump wind lever eccentric seconds Circa 1850

Pump wind lever watch with eccentric seconds
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An interesting English gold open faced pump wind lever watch with eccentric seconds, circa 1850, gilded movement, ratchet tooth lever escapement, bi metallic compensation balance, ruby end stone, jewelled to the center, hanging barrel, ‘Geneva’ stop work, signed Viner and Co. Inventors, 233 Regent Street and Royal Exchange London. Gold dial, circular satin finished chapter ring with black Roman numerals, engine turned chequered centre, similarly finished subsidiary seconds at three o’clock, outer minute ring, blued steel spade hands, signed Viner, London.
A gold engine turned case back, pendant with pull wind, case with London 18 Carat gold with maker’s mark PC in a rectangular cameo for Peter Clerc.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Signed: Viner and Co. Inventors, 233 Regent Street and Royal Exchange London
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Viner’s ‘pump’ system of winding is perhaps the best known keyless winding mechanism not employing a rotating button in the case pendant. The cap in the pendant is fixed to a long stem which, via a crank and a ratchet system, winds the movement by repeated extension and depression of the stem. The hands are set in the traditional manner by means of a square to their center.

The earliest patent for pump winding is Robert Leslie’s of 1793 (no. 1970) which reads: “A method of winding up a watch by the pendant. On the square where the key should go is a ratch; the pendant, being alternately moved in and out, turns this ratch by means of two clicks on either end of a fork fastened to the pendant.