About this lot

Description

circa 1885, the unsigned white dial, 40mm diameter, with central digital minute aperture, digital hour aperture at 12 o'clock and traditional subsidiary seconds register at 6 o'clock, signed but unnumbered jewelled mechanical crown wind movement with onion shaped winder, engraved balance cock and minute setting button at 5 o'clock, case, 52mm diameter, verso hinged at 9 o'clock, plain and polished, interior gilded and numbered 735 with Swiss Grouse mark for 800/1000 standard silver, Bienne, the cuvette similarly marked,119.3g grossFootnote: The first full digital timepiece appears to have been introduced in 1883 by a 25-year-old Austrian inventor, Josef Pallweber, though the 'jump hour' watch was an earlier invention. He patented his design and granted the licence to IWC, who then in turn granted it to others.Manufacturers embraced the novel invention of a digital pocket watch. Rather than having a conventional dial with two hands pointing to minutes and hours, the design used rotating discs for hours and minutes. The digits showing the correct hour and minutes were revealed through two windows on the dial. Seconds were still recorded on a traditional subdial.The movements were sometime known as “jump hour” since the hour and minute discs “jump” to the next setting as they change. They were initially very popular, but after only a few years the market seems to have tired of the novelty and general production ceased in the early 1900s.Because the period of production was so short, they are among the most collectible of early pocket watches.Condition report: Case with some minor surface scratches as to be expected.Movement appears to be in working order, thought has not been tested for timekeeping.

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