Verge Fusee – A Pocket Watch History
Pocket watches began to appear in the 16th century and were actually know as pocket clocks at that time. These early versions of the pocket watch were pretty much useless as a timepiece and they could loose hours in one day, so they became more of a fashion statement for the more affluent of society.
It wasn’t until the mid 17th century that the pocket watch became a useful timepiece when the Fusee pulley was used to dramatically improve the timekeeping of pocket watches. The Fusee is attached to the mainspring barrel with a small chain and keeps an even reduction as the mainspring wound down. Although the Fusee mechanism had been used for years before in clocks it wasn’t until the mid 1600s that a Fusee could be made to fit in to a pocket watch and even then these kinds of watches although relatively accurate were bulky.
By the mid 1700s the Fusee was replaced by the Going Barrel by the French and adopted by the Swiss in the 1800s. The English however continued with the Fusee up until the 1900s
The picture on the right show the mechanism of a pocket watch and you can see the Fusee at the top left and the mainspring barrel at the bottom right.
There are many fine examples of early Verge Fusee Pocket Watches for sale on eBay and many are in perfect working order.
Pocket Watches For Sale
Pocket Watches (Category: Watches )
A.LANGE & SOHNE 14CT GOLD POCKET WATCH – RARE -WITH BOX
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£12,995.00 Sale Ends: Sunday Sep-05-2010 13:02:19 £12,995.00 |
Mint Silver Fusee Sully Escapment Pocket Watch 1820
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£5,995.00 Sale Ends: Saturday Oct-02-2010 23:40:00 £5,995.00 |
Superb Early Oignon Verge Pocket Watch c1710
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£3,950.00 Sale Ends: Saturday Oct-02-2010 10:02:23 £3,950.00 |
massive super 18ct pocket watch chronogragh very heavy.
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£3,690.00 Sale Ends: Saturday Sep-18-2010 12:45:13 £3,690.00 |
RARE SWISS SOLID SILVER OMEGA CHRONOGRAPH POCKET WATCH
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£3,500.00 Sale Ends: Thursday Sep-16-2010 15:17:05 £3,500.00 |
QUARTER REPEARTER ENAMEL POCKET WATCH
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£3,141.40 Sale Ends: Thursday Sep-30-2010 15:09:28 £3,141.40 |
GEORGE III 18ct GOLD CHAIN FUSEE POCKET WATCH, 1819
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£2,850.00 Sale Ends: Sunday Sep-19-2010 15:31:44 £2,850.00 |
18 KARAT SOLID GOLD ENAMEL POCKET WATCH JOHN PICARD
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£2,785.15 Sale Ends: Thursday Sep-30-2010 14:20:54 £2,785.15 |
Antique Edwardian 18Ct Gold Half Hunter Pocket Watch
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£2,650.00 Sale Ends: Wednesday Sep-08-2010 9:21:33 £2,650.00 |
Solid 18K High Grade QUARTER REPEATER Pocket Watch 1910
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£2,650.00 Sale Ends: Saturday Oct-02-2010 9:54:13 £2,650.00 |
