Lot 1324
George P. Reed. A prototype lever stop watch movement Unnumbered, signed with patent date May 12, 1863
12 June 2014, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$17,500 inc. premium
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George P. Reed. A prototype lever stop watch movement
Unnumbered, signed with patent date May 12, 1863
Gilt and damascened ¾ plate movement with jeweled straight line long lever escapement, bimetallic balance with blued arms, flat spring, key wound going barrel, back plate cut away to reveal the hour and minute wheel work, each with a setting square, Signed white enamel dial with 60 seconds ring enclosing 12-minute register (right) and subsidiary dials for 12-hour chapter ring (left) and continuous seconds, blued steel sweep hand and register hands, gilt seconds hand, now in an associated and adapted silver hunting case
46.6mm diameter of pillar plate
Gilt and damascened ¾ plate movement with jeweled straight line long lever escapement, bimetallic balance with blued arms, flat spring, key wound going barrel, back plate cut away to reveal the hour and minute wheel work, each with a setting square, Signed white enamel dial with 60 seconds ring enclosing 12-minute register (right) and subsidiary dials for 12-hour chapter ring (left) and continuous seconds, blued steel sweep hand and register hands, gilt seconds hand, now in an associated and adapted silver hunting case
46.6mm diameter of pillar plate
Footnotes
Provenance:
Fred Selchow Collection
Literature:
Nijssen, G. A. (2005). George P. Reed & Hiram W. Smith: Two of Greater Boston's Individual Watchmakers. NAWCC Bulletin, pp. 3-24.
The present lot is probably the model for US Patent 38502 of May 12, 1863 for an "Improvement in Stop Watches" ..."by which the stoppage of the second-hand may be effected...without the stoppage of the train or the hour and minute hands thereof. ... [This] may be termed an 'independent seconds mechanism' peculiarly simple in its construction and very advantageous in its operation."