Lot 551

Widenham, London, Movement No. 1149, Case No. 1149, 61 mm, 220 g, circa 1829
A large, heavy english pocket chronometer with original wooden box
Case: silver, polished, case maker's punch mark "WR" (William Rowlands of London). Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, auxiliary seconds, numbered, signed, gold spade hands. Movm.: brass full plate movement, numbered, signed, frosted, gilt, chain/fusee, two screwed gold chatons with endstones for second and escape wheel, spring detent escapement according to Thomas Earnshaw, Z shaped bimetallic chronometer balance with 2 screws and 2 weights, freesprung blued helical balance spring, fine florally engraved balance cock, chatoned ruby endstone on balance.
Richard Widenham in London became a successful chronometer maker in London at a young age and won the Greenwich Premium Trials in 1825. In 1830 he worked at 6 East Street in Clerkenwell and from 1835 on at 13 Lombard Street. In 1832 he was appointed "Watchmaker to the Honourable Board of Admiralty" - Widenham’s marine chronometers were of outstanding quality. From 1839 to 1844 he was in partnership with Thomas Adams, who was in charge of the timekeepers of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. The case of this deck watch was created by the casemaker William Rowland of 32 Lower Smith Street, Northampton Square in 1829 gefertigt; he used a pendant for it that had already been made in 1825.

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