Attributed to Charles Goode

• gilt full plate movement, verge escapement, decoratively pierced and engraved masked balance cock, fusee and chain, broad tulip pillars • silver champlevé six-hour dial with engraved trophies of war, inner chapter ring with raised Roman numerals for the hours, outer chapter ring calibrated in 60-minute sectors for each of the 6 hours, apertures for the month and day of the week, sector calibrated 1. 18. 22. 29, subsidiary seconds dial,  gilt dial edge • single silver case hinged at twelve, lever to inner bezel to start/stop movement, the back with large engraved monogram, three substantial seals to the edge of the case back with the arms and crest of the Dashwood family, engraved at the edge of the dial Richard Dashwood Esq. of Dearham Grange in Norfolk, movement signed C W P Invt, case with maker's mark R B probably for Richard Blundell

Richard Dashwood Esq of Dearham Grange, Norfolk

Sotheby's London, The Edward Hornby Collection, 1st December 1978, lot 33

Sotheby's New York, The Time Museum, 11th December 1986, lot 28

Sotheby's New York, 21-22nd February 1996, lot 617

Paul Tuck, Antiquarian Horology , Winter 1988, pp. 610-612

Jeremy Evans, Antiquarian Horology, Summer 1989, pp. 197-199

Paul Tuck, Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1989, pp. 321-322

Terence Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1970, pp. 124-125, pl. 60

This is an extremely innovative and technically accomplished watch that has ensured its place, at varying times, in some of the most important watch collections ever assembled. The watch combines a series of highly unusual features. First and most notably, the central hand indicates both hours and minutes, the former to a small inner ring, the latter calibrated at the edge of the dial. In order to incorporate both indications from a single hand, the dial is calibrated into 6 hours with each hour divided into minutes on the outer ring. Quite extraordinarily, the watch not only has a seconds dial – one of the earliest recorded watches to have this feature - but also a lever to the inner band which acts on the contrate wheel to start and stop the movement, thereby allowing it to be used as a seconds timer. The front bezel has to be opened by the pendant in order to reach the stop/start lever, the three large seals to the case sides allow the user a firm grip when opening the bezel and when using the lever. A very similar watch, which differs only in some elements of its engraved dial and case decoration can be found at La Musée International d’Horlogerie in La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland. A further example, with almost identical dial layout and also with three large bosses to the case sides, is illustrated and described in H. Marryat, Henlein to Tompion, 1938, p.71. These two watches, together with the present piece, are variously signed CW or CWP (the P seems to appear in the final loop of the W). Paul Tuck, in his article Charles Goode – CW an Enigma (Antiquarian Horology, Winter 1988), where he discusses the present watch and the watch in the Chaux de Fonds Museum, notes two further watches that are signed CW [or perhaps CWP]: one with very similar case to the present watch but with a ‘normal’ six hour dial and two hands is signed Chas. Goode; a second example that is now in a later case and, instead of a seconds dial has the signature ‘Goode’ within a cartouche. Consequently, although it is difficult to firmly attribute the present watch to Charles Goode himself, there is certainly evidence to link him with its production or finishing – assuming that C.W. or C.W.P. was not a pseudonym for Charles Goode, perhaps the mysterious CWP was in fact the designer or, indeed, manufacturer of these watches. In his book, Henlein to Tompion, H. Marryat suggests that his watch (mentioned above) may have been used for taking a pulse (see op. cit. p.72), however, perhaps the intention for the present watch was for timing a horse along a Chase. Racing horses along a Chase, usually a measure mile, was a popular pastime amongst the gentry during this period. The present watch would therefore have been the ideal gadget for its original owner, Richard Dashwood, and an innovative piece of technology with which to impress his friends.    

Charles Goode was Free of the Clockmakers' Company in 1686.