Rare French pocket watch with alarm and calendar Circa 1600-1610

Verge pocket watch with alarm and calendar by Nicolas Forfaict
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A brass single handed oval French pocket watch with alarm and calendar, circa 1600-1610.
Gilded brass and steel, partly blued full plate movement, turned baluster pillars, fusee and cat gut, short three wheel train with five leaf pinions, verge escapement, circular steel foliot, flat balance spring.
The case and dial of this watch are engraved with designs of inhabited foliage and grotesque ornament, the latter having its inspiration in the engravings of the French artist Jacques Androuet DuCerceau (ca. 1512–ca. 1585). The side, or band, of the case, is pierced to permit the sound to be heard when the watch strikes the hour (1–12) on the bell attached to the inside of the bottom of the case. A single hand indicates the hours and the half hours marked in the silver chapter ring applied to the dial. A small hand attached to a disk that revolves inside the chapter ring indicates the moon’s age in its monthly cycle and an aperture in the disk displays the phases of the moon. Further, the length of time of moonlight after sundown can be read at the edge of the disk and in its center, there is an aspectarium showing the changes in the angular distance between the sun and the moon in the zodiac, information useful for astrological purposes.
Nicolas Forfaict, a watchmaker from Paris around 1580-1615, signed his name on the movement of his watches as Nicolas Forfaict à Paris.
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Dimensions: 54 x 35 mm
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Signed: Nicolas Forfaict à Paris