Repoussé Silver Verge Fusee for the Dutch Market, c.1755
This is a mid-18th-century verge fusee pocket watch, signed I. Wills, London on the movement and made for the Dutch market around 1755. It survives complete in its original silver pair case and, unusually for its age, it winds, sets and runs.
The watch belongs to a well-documented group: English-signed watches built in Continental style for sale in the Netherlands. The signs are all present. The gilt full-plate movement uses a pierced and engraved balance bridge rather than the small English cock-and-foot, with a silver figural regulator disc. The enamel dial has an arcaded (scalloped) chapter ring with Roman hours and an Arabic outer minute track, and the case carries a high-domed 'bull's-eye' crystal. 'I. Wills' is not a recorded London maker; like the better-known 'John Wilter' and 'William Crayton' names found on the same type of watch, it is a London-style signature applied for the export trade rather than a traceable workshop. On these watches the value lies in the type, the quality of the work and the fact that they run, not in the signature.
The outer case is decorated in repoussé with a classical mythological scene of figures and putti in high relief within rococo scrollwork - crisp, well-modelled chasing that has survived in good order. The inner case carries a lion passant sterling standard mark. Inside the outer case is a 19th-century Dutch repairer's paper label, 'A. Guise, Mr Horologiemaker, Hoorn', with a hand-drawn rating disc - a piece of the watch's service history that we have left in place.
Condition is honest for a watch approaching 270 years old. The movement runs and holds tension, the hands set correctly, and both cases close securely. The enamel dial has a single hairline crack; there are no losses. The case shows the surface wear you would expect. The bull's-eye crystal is intact.
Specifications: sterling silver pair case, 50.6mm diameter, 29.5mm thick. Gilt full-plate verge fusee movement, key-wound and key-set, signed I. Wills, London, no. 1232. White enamel dial, Roman hours, Arabic minutes, pierced blued-steel hands. English, made for the Dutch market, c.1750-1765.
A genuine Georgian verge in running order, with a good repoussé case and a documented Dutch history. Pocket watches of this period and type are increasingly sought after, and running examples in complete pair cases are becoming harder to find.
