Rare Pull Wind Gold English Duplex

Rare Pull Wind Gold English Duplex.

Signed: Webster & Son, London. Hallmarked London: 1832. Diameter: 46 mm.

A rare 19th Century English pull wind duplex in a gold open face case. Keywind gilt Lepine calibre bar movement. Suspended going barrel, polished steel Geneva stopwork. Plain cock with polished steel regulator, garnet endstone. Plain three arm steel balance with blue steel spiral hairspring. Duplex escapement. Silver dial with radial engine turning, subsidiary seconds offset at three o'clock, Roman numerals, blue steel Breguet hands.

Slim 18 carat open face case, engine turned middle and back with vacant circular cartouche. Gold pendant with a flat gold cap on top of a polished steel shaft. Pulling this out winds the barrel arbor about a sixth of a turn. Hands set through the plain gold cuvette, additional small hole for the winding square. To wind the watch with a key would require opening the cuvette, maker's mark PM.

In excellent overall condition. This watch was probably made by Viner and retailed by Webster. Viner improved on a system invented by Joseph Berollas which used an chain and returned automatically. Although Viner's design requires the user to return button manually it is far more robust while at the same time less expensive to produce.

An earlier patent, no.1970, was taken out by Robert Leslie in 1793 but was not adopted. Another patent, no 3854, was granted to Edward Massey in 1814, again not widely adopted. Although Viner produced these for a number of years, including variations with cylinder and lever escapements, few have survived. Casemaker Philbert Mathey, Clerkenwell.