Description: Gilt brass, slim 2/3 plate pillar-less caliber, (44mm diameter) front plate stating BW&CCo number 88 under the dial. Single-roller detached lever escapement. Steel balance, spiral balance-spring. Backplate engraved ‘Thomas Bloomfield London No. 1850’. Enamel dial with sunk seconds at 6. (A)
Additional Info:
This movement shows the distinctive and unique style of the few machine made pieces by the ‘British Watch and Clockmaking Company’ between 1843 and 1845. Pierre-Frédéric Ingold’s attempts to establish a new way of making watches is now well known, and led directly to the advent of ‘machine-made’ watchmaking in London by Nicole & Capt (the earliest), followed by Lange in Dresden and what became the Waltham Watch Company in America. Such was the impact of this new way of making watches, dispensing with the established trades of rough movement (ebauche) manufacture and its subsequent finishing by other specialists, that the world of watchmaking was to change forever. (A)
This movement has been produced in two sizes, this being the larger. Less than twenty examples in total are known to have survived, most of which are movements only. (A)
One smaller example (movement No. 1362) belonging to the Gerd Ahrens collection sold in 2007 for over £4000. (A)
As an important reference on the subject please refer to the article on Ingold and his impact by David Penney published as part of the 2002 NAWCC Special Order Supplement No 5, entitled Boston: Cradle of Industrial Watchmaking.
Antiquarian Horology 
