English 18K gold, rose-cut diamond-set ring watch Circa 1770

Gold ring watch with a leather-covered fitted box
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A very fine and extremely rare English, 18 carat gold and rose-cut diamond-set ring watch with a leather-covered fitted box, circa 1770. Circular body with rose-cut diamond-set hinged bezel, polished band, shank with pierced rococo shoulders. White enamel dial, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, winding aperture at 4 o’clock. Yellow gold arrow hands. A hinged, frosted gilt full plate movement with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, micrometric potence adjustment, three-arm brass balance with flat balance spring, pierced and engraved foliate cock, silver regulation disc. Movement signed. Property of an English Gentleman.
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Diameter ring: 18 mm
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Signed: William Hughes  London
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William Hughes Appears to have been quite an inventive maker although little is known about him. He seems to have been familiar with the work of the French makers Lepine and Berthoud because his verge watches are often fitted with the micrometric potence adjustment particularly associated with these two French makers. He made watches for the Chinese market and a musical box with a built in watch. The watch in this box had an almost identical dial and bezel to the present watch. Ring watches Watchmakers have always been fascinated with the idea of fitting a watch into a ring. Only a few succeeded. In the early days, successful attempts finished on the fingers of Kings, Princes and prelates. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there is a very early ring watch, dated about 1560 and signed I.W. The Mantua archives contain a letter from James Widman to the Duke of Mantua concerning three-ring watches, and quite possibly, one of them is the one in the Metropolitan Museum. In about 1650 Johan Ulrich Schmidt of Augsburg made a ring watch for the Elector Johann Friedrich. In 1764, the young John Arnold presented an extraordinary ring watch to King George III of England. It was a half-quarter repeater that was less than two centimetres in diameter and had 120 parts. The watch brought fame to Arnold and established him as a very capable watchmaker. The Emperor of Russia offered Arnold double what George III had paid, for another such ring, but Arnold refused.