English pocket chronometer in wooden deck box Circa 1811

Silver pocket chronometer in a wooden deck box
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An English fine silver consular cased pocket chronometer in a wooden deck box, circa 1811. Gilded full plate movement, Earnshaw-type spring detent escapement, Pennington’s ‘double L’ bimetallic balance with a curved brass piece and limiting screw at end of each of the two arms, blued steel helical spring, plain balance cock, diamond endstone, plate cut away to allow viewing of engagement of detent and escape wheel, fusee and chain, cylindrical pillars. White enamel dial, Roman numerals, outer minute ring, subsidiary seconds, gold spade hands, and blued steel subsidiary seconds hand. Plain silver case, hinged back opening to reveal fixed silver cuvette with winding aperture, bezel with a screw to fix movement, Regency pendant, with maker’s mark IN incuse for John Nevill, wooden deck box with lock and key, brass observation slide signed Pennington, London.
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Diameter: 57 mm
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Signed: Robert Pennington London
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Robert Pennington’s development of the bimetallic compensation balance was an important contribution to the advancement of precision timekeeping (see. This watch incorporates Pennington’s so-called “double L” bimetallic balance which has a curved brass piece and a limiting screw at the end of each of the two brass arms.

Although Pennington seems to have supplied the trade with both his own escapements and complete watch movements for the majority of his career, from about 1810 he began to sell a few more watches, especially chronometers, under his own name. It is likely that the majority of Pennington’s signed watches were intended for marine use and would have been supplied with mahogany deck boxes such as that with the present piece.

For a similar watch by Pennington, no. 162, see The Camerer Cuss Book of Antique Watches.