Gold English full hunter with power reserve Circa 1905

Gold hunting cased lever watch with power reserve indication
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A fine gold English hunting cased keyless lever watch with power reserve indication, circa 1905, nickel silver half-plate movement, escapement with a gold lever, brass ratchet tooth escape wheel, jewelled to the centre, bi metallic compensation balance, micrometre regulation, diamond endstone, fusee and chain, signed H.L. Brown and Son: London and Sheffield, Watchmakers to the Admiralty.
Venetian white enamel dial, bold black Roman numerals, outer minute ring, two recessed subsidiary dials for the state of wind indication at 12 and subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock, blued steel spade hands, signed H.L Brown and Son, London & Sheffield.
Case with plain gold polished covers, gold hand set button to the band with Olivette, a second larger gold pusher to the band engages movement to allow winding, gold pendant and thief proof bow, the back opening to reveal a hinged plain gold cuvette, covers and cuvette with maker’s mark FT London with incuse A above for Fred Thoms.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Signed: H.L. Brown and Son: London and Sheffield Watchmakers to the Admiralty
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Most unusually for an English watch, the half-plate movement is made of nickel silver and the wheel train is a gold alloy. The nickel silver alloy is much less likely to tarnish than brass and usually consists of around 50% copper, 30% zinc and 20% nickel. In order to wind the watch, the pusher to the band between 2 and 3 o’clock must be pressed simultaneously whilst turning the crown – this feature was intended to encourage careful winding, which together with observation of the state of the wind indicator would have helped to prevent over winding of, and thereby damage to the fusee movement.

The firm Harris Leon Brown of Sheffield was already active by 1871. H. L. Brown appears to have been a successful retailing business and it is known that Usher and Cole supplied them with a repeating chronograph (their number 28180) in October 1894, especially signed and numbered 26515.