Very rare 6 hour dial with subsidiary seconds

This is an exceptionally rare and technically advanced late 17th century watch, featuring a single hand six hour dial, subsidiary seconds dial, and adjustable indicators of day of the week and the month.

MOVEMENT : A gilded movement with verge escapement, four very wide crested Egyptian pillars, a silver regulator disk and clean blued steel screws. The pierced and engraved balance cock is finely engraved with foliage and scrolls. Typically for 17thc. watches, there is no rim to the balance cock foot.

The movement is signed CWP Invt. (scratched), with the initials in the form of a cypher. Possibly meaning Colonel William Parsons, Inventor ?

In good condition though scratched at the pillar top near the cypher. Running well.

DIAL : A wonderful gilt edged, silver champleve, six hour dial, engraved with trophies of war. The outer chapter shows the minutes past each of the six hours..

Above the centre is a window with indicator for the day of the week, then a fixed sector calibrated 1,8.15,22 and 29 (indicator of the position within the month) and above that a further indicator of the month (also showing the total days in that month). Both day and month are adjusted by turning the steel squares at 4 or 6.

Below the centre is the seconds subsidiary dial. On the edge of the dial (at 5) there is a slot for a stop/start lever but this is now absent.

The dial is in excellent condition.

The blued steel hand (indicating both the hour, and the minutes past the hour, is finely shaped to allow it to pass over the winding square (the watch is front wound).
Both this hand and the blued steel seconds hand are in very good condition.

INNER CASE : A silver case, with no maker’s mark.
In excellent condition throughout. There is a small hole in the back, too small for a key, and directly in line with the fusee arbor (not sure of the purpose).

The very high dome crystal is good, with just a couple of short scratches.

OUTER CASE : Again no silver marks, and in excellent condition throughout.
The catch, catch button and hinge are fine and the bezel snaps shut nicely.

These cases could be 18thc. replacements, though are a perfect fit for the movement so if later, then were purpose made.

The watch is accompanied by a fine steel articulated crank key, from the same period as the watch.

NOTES :
This is an exceptionally innovative and technically sophisticated watch, combining a series of highly unusual features, especially considering the early date of manufacture.

The central hand ingeniously indicates both the hours and the minute, the hours on a small inner ring and the minutes on the outer minute chapter. To achieve this, the dial is divided into six-hour segments, each hour carefully subdivided into minutes along the outer scale.

Particularly rare for a verge watch of this period, a subsidiary seconds dial is positioned at 3. This is a highly advanced feature for its time.

The watch is English, and probably made in London, possibly by Charles Goode as suggested elsewhere.

REFERENCES : A similar watch to this, with the same cypher (CWP), was sold by Sothebys in 2015. Here it is attributed to Charles Goode.

The same watch is also discussed here.

The Sothebys’ watch and another example, with the same signature, are described by Paul Tuck in his article published in the AHS journal (Winter 1988, page 610).

In a follow up letter to the journal (Summer 1989, page 197), Jeremy Evans suggests that the monogram is for Colonel William Parsons. Parsons was interested in practical mathematics and navigation, and had instruments made by various makers. Some of these are marked with the same cypher seen on this watch.
The relationship between Parsons and the maker of this watch is unknown, but it is possible the Charles Goode collaborated with Parsons to produce it.

A further example of this watch is on display in the wonderful Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.  It has exactly the same dial layout, the same curiously shaped central hand, and a slight variation in the trophies of war decoration.  The museum dates their watch to about 1690, and attributes it to Charles Goode (?), Londres.