Dutch Gold Watch With Astronomical Dial

A large, very rare and interesting Dutch gold verge watch, with a complex dial showing subsidiary dials for seconds, day of the week, calendar (31 days) and moon phase (29.5 days, the average time of a moon cycle).

MOVEMENT : Gilded verge movement with finely pierced balance bridge and large silver regulator disk. Blued steel screws, steel mainspring set up wheel and click.

Signed Thiebout, ARNHEIM

In excellent condition, and running well.

All of the calendar features are complete and working correctly.

DIAL : A very fine complex white enamel dial, with four subsidiary dials, the moon phase with blue images.

In very good condition, with no repairs. There is a flake around the top of the winding aperture and a short scratch on the edge at 4.

Fine matching gold (or gilt) skeletonised hour and minute hands, with plain hands for the subsidiaries. There is a small repair to the hour hand.

CASE : Gold, with no gold marks but tested as 18ct. Engraved with case no. 1414 and maker’s mark CHIG.

Plain back and engraving to the bezel and the rim on the back. Initials EG nicely engraved at the centre of the back.

The case is in good condition. The bezel shuts correctly, and the crystal is good. The gold is in good condition with just a few small bruises around the edge of the back. The hinge is a little worn but the bezel snaps shut correctly, and the gold bow and stem are original and in good condition.

The gold case weighs 33 gms. excluding crystal.

Carel Thiebout worked in Arnhem around 1780.  (Source Morpurgo Nederlandse klokken- en horlogemakers from 1300).

The French language was in vogue in 1780 which might explain the French calendar, but the watch may have been imported from France. This was normal in 1780 after the Dutch watch industry went bankrupt after 1770.