Horological History - Astronomical Watches of an extraordinary Watchmaker

Horological History Episode 1 - George Margetts

If Haute Horology had a picture it would have been George Margetts, one of the best watchmakers the world has ever seen. Creating some of the best precision and complicated watches in the world, over 200 years ago.

We discover this mans short but amazing life where he made astronomical clocks and watches and marine chronometers.

Horological History - Trying to make fun and educational series about the the history of wrist watches, the people and the development. So you can 1 UP your watch collector friends.
Before we jump in and get into the history and works of this watchmaker. Lets talk Astronomical Watches.
When you hear astronomical watches, your celestial mind might gaze to stars and think about Jacob & co, Michael the Producer, Christiaan van de Klaauw, Van Cleef & Arpels or Bovet.
These interdimensional watches don’t just display time on earth, they show constellations, equation of time, sidereal time, moon phases, eclipses. How the earth interacts with the universe. All on your wrist or in your hand. Name another device that does tha .mechanically.
Lets cast our minds back to a time, 272 years ago. 1748 a legend was born in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, named George.. Margetts.

George Margetts, apprenticed to an Oxfordshire Clockmaker before moving to London. Where he was no joe blow clockmaker. He was in an elite group of clock and watchmakers who focused on precision timekeeping and in the race to solve the problem of longitude.
He produced astronomical clocks and watches, marine chronometers, and mechanical calculating instruments. The man was a beast. And best known for his fine astronomical watches by the time he was 30, where he moved to 3 cheapside, London.

Here George was making this masterpiece, it was horological home run hitter. The movement 46.70mm diameter, only 10mm larger than the ETA 6498.

These were made as fusee- straight line power, verge or cylinder escapement, brass with gilded plates, look at the engraving. Eagle neck regulator and a diamond endstone.

And that is not even the best bit. Amazing enamel dial shows the positions of the sun and the moon in the zodiac throughout the year, the stars visible each night, the age of the moon and the times of high tide at various ports around Great Britain ('PORTSH, LONDON, HULL, YARMH, DOVER DOWNS, PLYMH, DUBLIN').The whole dial rotates clockwise once per day, together with the solar and lunar indicators, but over the course of a year both solar and lunar hands regress at different rates to show the position of the sun and moon in the zodiac. Effectively, the dial rotates once in a sidereal day - 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds - and the solar and lunar hands rotate once in a solar and lunar day. The gold horizon ring and the white enamel central dial do not move.
It does all this with only 16 gears.

However, Margetts had filed for bankruptcy in 1788 when he was 40. Some say it was his obsession with the longitude problem. A year later 1789 Margetts presented a design for detached pendulum to the Board of Longitude, not did not receive support. Later that year he again approached the Board of Longitude with mathematic tables but again had no success.

However, in 1790 the East India Company 40 sets of the tables to assist with navigation.
Now Margetts was alive in an amazing time period. Because Thomas Mudge was around and kickin’ and if you don’t know Mudge. He made the arguably greatest horological invention. The lever escapement. However, Mudge only made a couple of watches with the lever escapement before focusing on marine chronometers with verge escapements.

As I said before Margetts was no push over. He was looked at favourably by the watch god Mudge, and Margetts received his holy communion when Mudge showed him the lever escapement. Margetts made several watches with the lever escapement and improved on its design.
Here is an example of a watch Margetts made in 1798 with the lever escapement, 3 separate dials, indicating hours, minutes and seconds. 3 arm bimetallic balance wheel, straight line lever escapement, flat balance spring and diamond endstone.

Margetts died in 1804 or in 1808 there is a bit of mystery surrounding his death, some say he died in a lunacy asylum. After Margetts death only a very small amount of watchmakers would occasionally use the lever escapement for almost 25 years. One of these watchmakers - Abraham Louis Breguet.
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Видео Horological History - Astronomical Watches of an extraordinary Watchmaker канала Dean DK