Lot 84

John Arnold & Son

A collection of 4 silver pocket watches
A historically interesting pocket chronometer with Arnold's spring detent escapement, manufactured in second quality out of Arnold's III series, of which only six examples are known to date

Sold

This chronometer was originally built in 1797 and had most likely been fitted with John Arnold's Z balance; in1810, however, it was remodeled by John Roger Arnold. A new case was ordered from Daniel Walker, who had already created a number of pieces for J.R. Arnold. The watch was also fitted with a more modern dial, while the original set of hands was kept. Likewise, J.R. Arnold obviously decided to keep the original spring detent escapement, but he fitted the movement with a Pennington balance which was quite a novelty at the time. Here an extra heavy and high quality version of the balance was used. All in all this is a fascinating pocket chronometer that shows the gradual development of the technology used by Arnold's son John Roger Arnold in the course of the modernization process.