English gilt brass rock crystal pear shaped form watch Circa 1635

Gilt-brass double glazed verge watch
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An English pear shaped rock crystal verge pocket watch, circa 1635.
Verge movement, gut-driven fusee which regulates the power of the mainspring, baluster pillars. Engraved gilt-brass dial, the engraving depicting the birth of Jezus, above the nude figure of Time with his traditional symbols of a scythe and an hourglass, silver hour ring with inlaid black Roman numerals. Case rock crystal mounted in gilt-brass, the pendant has been replaced.
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Signed: Edward East London
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Edward East was apprenticed to Richard Rogers of the Goldsmiths’ Company in 1618 and became a Freeman in 1627. In 1632 he was made one of the first Assistants of the Clockmakers’ Company which had been founded the year before. He was Master of the Company in 1645 and 1653. In 1660 he was appointed Chief Clockmaker to the king. He seems to have operated on a large scale and to have had Royalist and Roman Catholic connections. Edward East’s will suggests that he was resident in Hampton, Middlesex, in 1688, though his business continued in London. His will was proved in February 1697 but the exact date of his death is not known.