Important English gold cylinder pocket watch Circa 1769

Gold open faced cylinder watch
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An important pair case pocket watch with cylinder escapement, circa 1769.
An 18 carat gold open faced pocket watch, case maker’s punch mark “LA” and “DA” (Laura and Daniel Avelin). Enamel dial with arabic numerals, full plate movement, chain/fusee, balance stop device, three arm steel balance.

The second early pocket watch  by John Arnold is also the first we know of with Arabic numerals on the dial; equally striking are the large central second between the hour hand and the minute hand and the brass cylinder wheel. The smooth outer case was made by Laura Avelin, who worked in London until 1778. It bears the number 2, while the inner case is marked 3, indicating that the watch originally also had an outer case, probably with ornamentation.
The watch is in outstanding original condition and is one of the earliest existing pocket watch by John Arnold; it is privately held.
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Diameter: 49 mm
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Weight: 115 g
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Signed:  John Arnold  London
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John Arnold (1736-1799)
After his apprenticeship with his father in Cornwall, John Arnold settled in London in 1760. In 1764 he presented King George III with a half quarter repeating cylinder watch mounted in a ring. By the time he was 28, Arnold’s watches, be they verge or cylinder, displayed interesting original components such as straight-line compensation curbs and minute repeating by increments of 10 minutes (instead of the more common 15 minutes). Around 1768 Arnold began his research into marine chronometers. He established himself at 2 Adam Street, Adelphi Buildings, Strand, in 1771 and carried out most of his research into marine chronometers here over the next eleven years. By 1774 Arnold had constructed a marine chronometer with pivoted detents; he invented terminal curves for the cylindrical balance spring in 1776 and included this construction in the patent for a bimetallic compensated balance he took out in 1782. He subsequently devised numerous different balances such as the Double T, Double S, Z, O-Z and U. Arnold, who was admitted to the Clockmakers’ Company in 1783, was the first to employ the term chronometer in the modern sense and to successfully find a way to simplify Harrison’s timekeeper design. In 1787 he took his son, John Roger Arnold, into partnership and changed the business name to “Arnold & Son”, which it retained until his death.