Hi Rich, That is a nice Windmills watch with its regulation thru the window you posted as "New" on your fine site. Did you recently acquire it? I mention it as my newly acquired Neale book arrived today and these 2 Windmills watches caught my eye.
Jon
Nice Windmills watch you posted as NEW
Re: Nice Windmills watch you posted as NEW
Jon, sorry for not responding earlier. I'm just back from giving a presentation to the Horology Society of New York that you would have loved. Its about the Philadelphia clock and watchmaker Robert Leslie who received the first watch patents in America and apparently designed the first American chronometer (albeit not a detent escapement type) in 1793 but his exploits were lost to American Horology because he was wrongly recorded as not being born in America.
Anyway, I've always been attracted to unusual dials and there were quite a few different configurations first made after the invention of the spiral balance spring by Huygens in about 1675 - - 6-hours dials, sun & moon, differential, etc. I can only imagine that makers were developing different ways to tell time, or differentiate their offerings. I think some of these, such as the sun & moon automation dials, likely had their origins in the Netherlands but by 1690-1700 the right mix of production methods, supportive government, guild organization, and immigrant craftsmen in London just took over the market and the English-recognized movement designs became synonymous with quality, latest technology and high fashion.
This Thomas Windmills watch came out of a collection in New Zealand. Not many of these are around and I jumped because of the maker and good restored condition. SN 2963 dates it to about 1705. Notice that the SN in the outer pair case was mis-stamped and redone, and that there is a faux regulation dial engraved on the back of the movement where it normally would be located.
Anyway, I've always been attracted to unusual dials and there were quite a few different configurations first made after the invention of the spiral balance spring by Huygens in about 1675 - - 6-hours dials, sun & moon, differential, etc. I can only imagine that makers were developing different ways to tell time, or differentiate their offerings. I think some of these, such as the sun & moon automation dials, likely had their origins in the Netherlands but by 1690-1700 the right mix of production methods, supportive government, guild organization, and immigrant craftsmen in London just took over the market and the English-recognized movement designs became synonymous with quality, latest technology and high fashion.
This Thomas Windmills watch came out of a collection in New Zealand. Not many of these are around and I jumped because of the maker and good restored condition. SN 2963 dates it to about 1705. Notice that the SN in the outer pair case was mis-stamped and redone, and that there is a faux regulation dial engraved on the back of the movement where it normally would be located.
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