Maurice Smith

Maurice Smith, Royal Exchange, London, No. 492, circa 1725.Very fine and extremely rare gilt metal and silver, pair-cased digital hour and minute watch with concealed time apertures. Silver, fully engraved with exotic birds, scrolls and foliage, aperture at the top for the digital Roman hours and at the bottom for the Arabic minutes, covered with blued-steel shutters which open by pushing the pendant, the centre with an aperture for the time setting square. 38.9 mm o, hinged, gilt brass full plate, square baluster pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, plain three-arm brass balance, blued-steel balance spring, single-footed gilt cock pierced and engraved with symmtrical scrolling, mask at the base, worm and wheel set-up, rack and pinion regulator with silver plate.Signed on the movement.Diam. 55 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, pages 134-135. Notes Smith MauriceHe is listed in the Baillie as apprenticed in 1694 and entered the Clockmakers' Company in 1702, stock sold in 1732, one of his objects is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, S. Kensington.Bagnolet CalibreIn the bagnolet calibre the movement is inverted and the train reversed. The idea was to make a very thin watch by reducing the thickness of the bridges and the dial and eliminate the cuvette. Philippe-Samuel Meylan is credited with its invention.