Antique Sterling Silver Pocket Watch, 1856

An antique hallmarked sterling silver fusee open face pocket…
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An antique hallmarked sterling silver fusee open face pocket watch, white enamel dial, Roman numerals, subsidiary seconds, swing out movement with finely engraved balance bridge, signed Thos Wheatley Carlisle, no. 39201, case diam. 51 mm, hallmarked London 1856, wt. 122.88g, working.

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  • Movement - The technical name for the workings of a clock or watch, and does not include the dial or case.
  • Fusee - The fusee movement was used in clocks and pocket watches from the mid 17th century. The fusee is a cone shaped drum within the works that is linked to the barrel of the spring, usually by a length of chain.

    As the mainspring loses its tension over time, the cone shaped barrel compensates for this by increasing the tension, by pulling the mainspring tighter, thus ensuring the time remains constant.

    Use of the fusee in clocks was superseded by the "going barrel" in the mid 19th century and for pocket watches at the beginning of the 19th century.

    The fusee continued to be used in marine chronometers until the 1970s.
  • Sterling Silver - Sterling silver is a mixture of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% of another metal, usually copper. Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, and is relatively soft and the addition of the very small amount of copper gives the metal enough strength and hardness to be worked into jewellery, decorative and household objects.

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