English 18K gold half hunting carrousel watch Circa 1904

Gold lever pocket watch
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A very fine English 18 carat yellow gold half hunting cased keyless pocket watch with patented 52½ minute Bonniksen carrousel regulator made by Birch & Gaydon in London, circa 1904. A solid, polished case with a black Roman numeral chapter on the cover and the engraved monogram MLB on the back. White enamel dial with radial Roman hour numerals, an outer minute track, sunk subsidiary seconds at 6 0’clock and gold double spade hands. Frosted gilt ¾ plate movement with 15 jewels in screwed chatons, a counterpoised lateral lever escapement, free sprung cut bimetallic compensation balance with gold timing screws and platinum meantime nuts, blued steel Breguet balance spring and diamond endstone, all mounted on a Bonniksen 52½ minute carrousel platform. Dial and movement signed, and with matching numbers.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Signed: Birch & Gaydon 153 Fenchurch St London Makers to the Admiralty
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The movement of the present watch would have been supplied by Bahne Bonniksen and then finished and adjusted by Birch & Gaydon.
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Bahne Bonniksen (1859-1935) was listed as working at 16 Norfolk Street, Spoon End in Coventry. Bonniksen, born in Denmark, apprenticed to T.D. Wright in London, who was later appointed lecturer at the Northampton Polytechnic for his work on the theory of chronometer making. After completing his apprenticeship, Bonniksen moved to Coventry, where he set up his workshops.
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In 1893, Bonniksen made an application to the British Patent Office for his carrousel regulator. In November of the same year, he was granted Patent No. 21421 for this invention. At the height of production, several watchmakers in Coventry made watches with his regulator under licence and no less than 500 watches per year with Bonniksen carrousel regulators were submitted to the Kew Observatory in Teddington for certification.
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Otto Sverdrup, captain of the Fram (the first ship specially built in Norway for polar research) and legendary Arctic explorer, said of the Bonniksen carrousel upon returning from his expedition to Greenland (1898-1902): “…the carrousel in question has followed me on all sledge expeditions during these four years and it has always proved to be one of the best pocket chronometers on board.”
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Bonniksen went on to become a Horological Instructor at the University of Coventry, and his patent and workshops were sold to the Rotherham Watch Company.
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Birch & Gaydon was first listed at 173 Fenchurch Street in London from 1833 to 1874, then at number 172 until 1904 and subsequently at 153 Fenchurch Street.
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The company can trace its roots back to around 1760. It was established by William Turner, a watchmaker, at 18 Cornhill in the City of London, close to the Bank of England, who moved his business to 167 Fenchurch Street, London in 1825. Turner died in 1839, and in 1840, the business was taken over by William Birch, born in 1815 and died aged 88 in 1903. Peter Gaydon was taken on as a partner in 1874. The firm supplied pocket and deck chronometers to the English Admiralty from circa 1900. They were one of the most renowned watchmakers in the city of London at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries and are now owned by Asprey & Co. Ltd.