English silver pair cased wandering hour watch Circa 1710

Rare silver pair cased wandering hour watch circa 1710
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A rare and unusual  English silver pair cased wandering hour watch, circa 1710, gilt full plate verge movement, balance cock set with an enamel portrait of a lady.
Silver dial, minute arc above the wandering hour aperture, bottom hemisphere with engraved war trophy centred by a portrait of King William III, plain inner case, a plain outer case with square hinge, with a possibly original outer leather case, movement signed.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Signed: Good
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Makers at the end of the 17th century were by no means wedded to the standard dial configuration of a concentric hour and minute hands, which had become more universal.  As a result, some unusual dial designs were devised particularly by English watchmakers. During this period there were four principal variations of dial design: the six hour dial, the wandering hour dial, the differential dial and the sun-and-moon dial.
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In Watches, by Cecil Clutton and George Daniels, p.77, First Edition, 1965, the Authors write: “a peculiarity of the wandering hour watches is that nearly, if not quite all, surviving English specimens have a royal attribution, such as a royal portrait (James II, Mary, or Anne; no Charles II is known to the authors) on the dial; or the royal arms engraved on the cock; or both….These distinctions have never been explained, and are additionally mysterious since several makers produced the type, not all of whom held a royal appointment.  As one surviving example has the portrait of Queen Anne it is evident that what is, after all, a very sensible arrangement, continued in production well after the turn of the century.”  For a detailed explanation of how the wandering hour dial works, Op. Cit. pp. 76-77.