Very Rare………………………………

18 karat yellow gold heavily engraved Key winder Pocket Watch.

Watch measures  46.00 mm. in diameter.

White enamel dial with blued steel hands.

Numbered  # 43331

Original key on engraved 14 karat yellow gold Bar Pin.

Stamped on back of the three (3) cases.

Pocket watch weighs  91.70 grams.

Condition:  Working,  but losses time, needs to be serviced.

James Stoddart, Clerkenwell Watcher (1805 – 1886)

London, England

James Stoddart was the son and grandson of watchmakers who migrated from Scotland to London in the late eighteenth century.  The family lived and worked in Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell at nos.13 and 61.  During the nineteenth century Clerkenwell was an acknowledged centre of the watch and clock-making trades in London.

James was born in 1805, and baptised at St Johns Clerkenwell on August 16th that year.  In 1821 he was apprenticed to the family watchmaking business, becoming a member of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1829.  By the end of his career he was the Honorary Secretary of the British Horological Institute, and merited an obituary in the society’s journal. Although he started out in “trade” by the end of his career he regarded himself as a “gentleman”.

Watches made by James still come up for sale at auctions. Amongst his models is a version of the “railway timekeeper”. The manufacture of these pocket watches was inspired by the railway boom in the mid-nineteenth century, when railway time became the standard throughout the country.

Must purchase with Excrow