German silver early oval puritanical verge watch Circa 1608

Pendant watch with alarm
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An early, oval, puritanical verge pendant watch with alarm, made by Adolphus Nicolai in Kleve, Germany, circa 1625. The oval silver case of this watch features pierced side a glazed lid and a bell. The silver dial features an outer hour track with Roman numerals, a single, fleur-de-lis styled time indicator hand in the center is actually made of gilded brass (or fire-gilded steel) to create a sharp colour contrast against the silver backdrop for easy reading, a central turnable alarm disc with the small fleur-de-lis alarm indicator. The movement is equipped with an original verge escapement from around 1625 with a stack freed and the balance wheel and hairspring were modernised around 1700.
The dial and the movement are signed.
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Dimensions: 76 x 46 mm
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Weight: 198 g
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Signed: Jan Janß Bockelts
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Nicolai
The brass movement inside the watch presented here was originally built by Adolphus Nicolai, a watchmaker from Kleve, a German city near the Dutch border. Historically, Nicolai was considered a relatively obscure, localized maker.
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Because Jan Jansz Bockels (Bockeltz) was a highly celebrated master watchmaker in The Hague, his timepieces commanded massive premiums from wealthy collectors. At a later date – likely during a modernization or repair in the late 17^th or 18^th century – an individual deliberately engraved the forged signature “Jan Jansz. Bockelts” onto the silver dial to pass the entire watch off as an expensive masterpiece by the famous Dutch master. 

This multi layered signature makes the watch an incredibly intriguing case study in early horological fraud.
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Bockelt(s)
The historical identity of “J. Bockeltz” actually spans two generations of a highly talented family of masters who helped establish early Dutch watchmaking.