Swiss rare verge pocket watch made of wood Circa 1780

Wooden open face pocket watch
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A Swiss rare verge pocket watch made of wood, circa 1780
Wooden case. Wooden dial with Roman numerals. Wooden full plate movement, chain/fusee, pillars, barrel and escape wheel made of bone, three-arm brass balance.
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Diameter: 39 mm
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Weight: 16 g
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Signed: No name
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It may be surprising to see that of all makers, the “father” of precision timekeeping has a connection to a wooden pocket watch: the famous John Harrison , maker of marine chronometers H1 to H4 and a trained cabinet maker created a pendulum clock with a wooden movement in 1713. However, even at the time such clocks already had a longstanding tradition – wooden movements were produced in Davos since the mid 17th century and the makers in the Black Forest had followed soon after. Those timepieces were usually longcase clocks though, which makes this kind of pocket watches so very desirable – the most famous of them are those created by Russian maker Semen Bronnikow . He produced truly wonderful works of art which sometimes quite easily fetch as much as 20,000 Swiss Francs at auctions.
Wooden movements might be made of wood alone except for the coils and the mainspring, or some parts may have been made from bone, such as in this watch. Usually different types of wood were used for the different parts; Bronnikow for example used birch for the case, palm wood for wheels and bridges, and boxwood for the dial; the hands were made of honeysuckle wood. Different kinds of wood were used in the different regions, there are also pieces that used larch and arolla pine.