Traveling clock watch with alarm

Thomas Tompion|Nathanial Delander

ca. 1680 · Case and dial: silver; Movement: gilded brass, partly blued steel, silver · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This movement represents an early, short-lived experiment: the newly invented balance spring. Tompion omitted a fusee—a cone-shaped device used to even out the force in the timekeeping mechanism as the spring unwinds. His fine workmanship, the ingeniousness of his designs, and the greatly improved accuracy of his timepieces contributed vastly to the fame of English clockmaking in his lifetime. Nathaniel Delander was one of Tompion’s favored casemakers.

Artist

Thomas Tompion|Nathanial Delander

Date

ca. 1680

Medium

Case and dial: silver; Movement: gilded brass, partly blued steel, silver

Culture

British, London

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917