Watch by M.Martinot, Avignon, France, c.1700. Case made of gilt metal, covered in polished sharks skin. Dial made of repousse gilt brass, featuring a bust of Louis XIV, also with enamel hour plaques and inner enamel band. Watch wound through centre of dial. Short steel hand. Movement with verge escapement, Egyptian pillars and rack and pinion regulation. The balance and balance cock are very large; the latter with a section cut away to reveal a bob on the balance, known as a mock pendulum. Signed on movement 'M. Martinot A Avignon'.

Presented to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers by the the sculptor Anne Seymour Damer (1749-1828) in 1817. Damer was the first woman to donate an object to the Company's newly formed collection of books and 'specimens'. They noted in their minutes their happiness at receiving a gift 'by a person unconnected with the Trade'. Clockmakers' Museum No. 108