 Chain Drive Fuzee Watch Dated 1848 (8823)
I don't really want to sell this one, because its so perfect, but I thought it was important to have a watch cane on the site along with all it teaches us. Watch canes are my favorite category of gadget canes and I probably know more about them than most other cane dealers. Its also the only cane for sale in the site that will take me this slot and the next and 12 pictures to describe.
Every piece of English silver has to be hallmarked. Every link of every chain and every loupe holding the pieces of the hooks and T's for the vest pocket have to be hallmarked. No hallmark on part of and English cane and its not craftsman original. It could be a handle made for another use, but it wasn't made by the original, in this case, watchmaker. The dull hallmarks are in the inside of the handle itself, and the next single hallmark is on the bezel. The identical polished inner case has the identical hallmarks. The case was polished when the movement was restored, so all pieces are hallmarked for Birmingham, an anchor, England for 1848-49, and the lion walking sideways for sterling. You will notice the watch is removable from the outer case making it what is called a pair case, or two cases. The later ones had only one case. This watch is removable from the case not only for using separately, but for protection when checking the cane at the theater. It is also why there as so few of these, when the watch broke or was lost they thru the cane away.
Can you see the flat spot on the center of the crystal, the spot where the pontil was broken off and polished flat? This is most likely the original crystal and they are difficult to find a old replacement as they haven't been made for over a 100 years.
When you look at the side of the movement you see the chain coiled around the mainspring barrel going to a cone called the fuzee. They didn't have the ability to make a mainspring to last a whole day when the watch was invented so they invented a system to make the watch run longer. It doesn't take as much power to run a watch when it is wound up as when its nearly wound down, so the coil gave it the leverage it needed to run all day. It was such a reliable mechanism and they were so used to making it, England made these watches long after they needed to. In fact, the lever escapement, a much easier mechanism to make eventually put the fuzee out of business. The fuzees were all hand made with hand cut gears again increasing the cost over watches made with interchangeable parts.
All fuzees are key wind, and key set. When the key winds the chain around the fuzee, the cone on the left of the picture from the side, the watch will run 30 hours. The chain looks like a miniature bicycle chain the, and the pins to hold it together are 100 times smaller than a sewing pin, taking about a month to make.
The shaft on this one is Malacca full bark with a long ferrule, about 4". If you will notice the ferrule, it has a very unique feature that indicates it is a transitional ferrule. Most 18th century ferrules don't have a steel end, its just tapered brass. This one has a long steel tip like a ferrule that is later, putting it at just about 1850 the age of this watch.
The cut out thing on the back of the movement, is called a watch cock, it holds the pinion for the balance wheel. The earlier the watch, the larger and fancier the watch cock. By the end of the fuzee the fancy watch cock was gone. Notice the engraved face on the bottom of the cock. The fuzee was made with different types of operating systems; this one has a crown next to the escape wheel and is call a verge, a later one in Beyond Dike from 1871 is a lever escapement. Verges are rarer and more desirable than lever.
A fuzee watch like this is in Cane Curiosa by Dike, and are very rare. Most watch canes are Swiss and have cylinder escapements, a much less expensive mechanism. This watch cane works perfectly. I would never recommend buying any watch cane that doesn't work, as they often can't be fixed.
Category: Gadget
Sub Category: City - Manufactured
Price : $1900.00 - In US Dollars
This item is for sale by caneologist
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