German 18 carat gold musical cylinder watch Crica 1810

Interesting musical pocket watch
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An interesting musical watch with a music box located underneath the dial which can be triggered by a slide on the side, made by Peter Hüber in Elberfeld, Germany, circa 1810. This watch features numbered 18 carat gold case with a coined band and an engine turned back with a cartouche in the center inscribed “AM 4 November 1817”. The enamel dial features an outer minute and hour track with Arabic hour numerals and Breguet steel hands. The cuvette is marked “Musique” and the rare movement is equipped with a cylinder escapement, a visible striking mechanism and a quarter repeater.
The cuvette is signed.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Weight: 134 g
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Signed: Peter Hüber Elberfeld
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Hüber
Johann Godfried Peter Hüber worked as a watchmaker in Elberfeld near Wuppertal around 1800. Some of the very rare Elberfeld pocket watches were part of the Abeler watch collection at the Wuppertal Museum.
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Johann Godfried Peter Hüber operated during a transformative, golden era of horology in the Wupper Valley. Because he lived and worked over two centuries ago, personal diary details are sparse, but his professional history is well documented through regional trade guilds, tax records and the distinct provenance of his surviving elite timepieces.

Hüber was born in the latter half of the 18^th century. By the late 1790’s, he established his workshop in Elberfeld, a town that was rapidly evolving into one of the wealthiest industrial centers of the German Rhineland due to its booming textile manufacturing and global trade networks. This environment provided Hüber with an exceptionally wealthy clientele – factory owners, merchants and regional nobility – who demanded luxury items to showcase their status.

Hüber active records fade around the mid 1820’s, marking the end of his career. For over a century, his history was kept alive primarily by regional German clock collectors.

His place in horological history was permanently cemented when several of his masterpieces were acquired by Jürgen Abeler, a world renowned goldsmith and watch authority who wrote the definitive biographical encyclopedia Meister der Uhrmacherkunst (Masters of the Watchmaking Art). Abeler featured Hüber’s work in the famous Abeler Watch Museum (Uhrenmuseum Abeler) in Wuppertal, ensuring that his name remains synonymous with the pinnacle of early 19^th century Rhineland craftsmanship.