Pocket watches
Pocket watches in particular require a large degree of virtuoso craftsmanship of jewelers and watchmakers. The emergence of the small hours for personal use has been made possible since the use of their machinery running springs. The first hours of spring have appeared in the early 16 century in Nuremberg, and then in Prague, Augsburg. Throughout this century, has created centers of production hours in BLOIS, Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam:
Pocket, they referred to as conditional, since they wore around their necks as jewelry.
They had only one - hour - an arrow, and the time show up Roman numerals, applied to the metal plate clock face. Then it has not yet been tsiferblatnogo glass, and prevents the arrow to a blank cover, which is often, like the watch, made of rock crystal, or Topaz. In the event of a watch made of metal (for example, from the gilded copper) was carried out on the lid Prorezna ornament, which also adorned the subject, and allowed through the openings azhura see the movement arrows. Since the mid 17 th century tsiferblatnoe glass became a widely used, but in the second half of the 17 th century there are still hours to such caps.
Early models of pocket hours differ diversity of materials, forms, methods decorated. Their form has not been attributable to any tradition, round shape established definitively only in the second half of 17 century. They did octagon, oval, round, square, in the form of books, crosses, skulls, figurines of birds or animals, flower buds:
Performance in the form of skulls or crosses, they were reminded of their bearing on human frailty and transience of life.
The material basis and the lining of the shell ornamentation and its extremely diverse, and design should be consistent with the style that had dominated the applied arts in any given period.
