French deck watch with 49-hour power reserve indicator Circa 1853

Brass open-faced deck watch by Joseph Thaddäus Winnerl
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An important, French, small ship’s chronometer with 49-hour power reserve indicator for the “Services Maritimes des Messageries Impériales“, circa 1853. One of the earliest existing ship’s chronometer by Thaddäus Winnerl.
The case is a mahogany box with an inlaid signature shield, hinged handles to the side, two-body with slide and case key. The dial is silvered, signed and numbered, with radial Roman numerals, auxiliary seconds at “12”, a 49-hour power reserve indicator and blued Breguet hands. And the brass movement is polished and decorated, with a diameter of 63 mm, moulded pillars, chain/fusee, spring detent escapement according to Thomas Earnshaw, ground screws, heavy chronometer balance with two weights and four screws, blued helical free-sprung balance spring, chatoned diamond endstone on balance and chatoned ruby endstone on the escape wheel.
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Diameter: 63 mm
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Box: 145 x 140 x 145 mm
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Signed: Joseph Thaddäus Winnerl à Paris
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Joseph Thaddeus Winnerl (1799-1886)
Joseph Thaddeus Winnerl was born on January 25th, 1799 in Mureg/Styria. He served as an apprentice for Georg Schmidt Fidel in Graz and qualified in 1816. Beginning in 1823 Winnerl worked in Breslau and then for Kessels in Altona, for Urban Jurgensen in Copenhagen and from 1829 in Paris, where among others he worked for Breguet et fils. In 1831 he produced the first pocket watch with “seconde independante”. Its centrally positioned seconds hand could be stopped and then started again independently from the clockwork any number of times, however, after the completion of the timekeeping it would only slowly go back to zero. Only then could a new timing process be initiated. In 1832 he started his own business in Paris and produced marine chronometers, precision pocket watches and precision pendulum clocks.
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Ferdinand Adolf Lange worked for Winnerl during his wanderings from around 1838 to 1841 and rose to the position of business leader within a short amount of time. In 1839 Winnerl won a gold medal in Paris for his designs. He was an outstanding manufacturer of chronometers and balance wheels, and also developed his own compensation balance. Messageries Maritimes (MM) The Compagnie des Services Maritimes des Messageries National, a state-controlled shipping company, was founded by the French Government in 1835 in order to maintain a liner service between Marseille and the Levant ports in the eastern Mediterranean. With the restoration of the monarchy in France in 1853, the shipping company changed its name to Cie. des Services Messageries Imperiales. During the next five years, the company expanded dramatically and in 1857 had a fleet consisting of 57 passenger and cargo ships. After the end of the Franco-German War in 1871 and the final end of the monarchy, the shipping company was renamed again to Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes (MM).