Lot 1479

Description

Telegrapher's Time Code watch, a very rare example, Swiss, signed Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd., early 20th century, gilt keyless lever movement jeweled to the centre, bimetallic balance, polished overcoiled spring, pendant set, the unique white enamel dial with roman chapters aligned with an inner ring of red letters A-M representing the hours 1:00 am to noon and an outer ring N-Z representing 1:00pm to midnight, the minutes in each five minute interval labeled, R, S, W, X, blued steel hands, brass case with winding crown without bow, in custom heavy duty brass case, set on heavy brass stand, (80mm wide). Very fine and very rare.

Only a few examples of this curious watch are known. The dial was apparently first designed by a British postmaster, Hill in the 1880s in an attempt to simplify transmitting time in Morse code, when using a coded sequence of letters to represent numerals.

The watch is designed to directly read the letter code from the timepiece. For example, if the letter "B" designates 2:00, then the letters "B F" represent 2:30 and, for one minute intervals, the sequence "B F S" means 2:32.

Never adopted, it is not known how the Marconi Company learned of the dial, suggesting the surviving examples may have been prototypes in an unsuccessful experiment.