I recently acquired an anonymous ivory crucifix watch with a considerably damaged ivory movement. Except for the brass great wheel and two arbors, the case, dial, hand, movement plates, wheels, arbors, pivots, pinions, pillars, cock, and the two-arm circular balance are all made of ivory. The mainspring is not in a barrel. The four small pillars surrounding the mainspring—to protect the movement if the spring should break—are of iron or steel. The crown wheel arbor and pinion are also of iron or steel. There is no fusee and no stackfreed, nor any way to regulate the going of the balance wheel. It is indeed a very primitive watch design, possibly copied directly from an early weight-driven clock train with a circular balance. The hinges and clasp are of silver. This ivory crucifix watch is possibly of the 16th century. The crucifix is 70.75mm tall by 56.7mm wide and 23.1 mm deep.

Evidence confirming the early date is plentiful. The crucifix case and movement are made of ivory; the depiction of The Passion of Christ in a series of carvings, the design of the movement, and the style of the balance cock all point to an early date. The wheel teeth and pinion leaves are hand cut, and not too well done. This only proves the maker did not use a wheel cutting engine and suggests the watch was made before 1675, prior to the development of wheel cutting engines. It also might mean the maker was not an experienced watchmaker in the newly established 16th century craft of horology. The single hand indicates a date prior to 1675, as does the absence of screws. The ivory wheel train, when examined through an eye loupe, has the flaky surfaces that, according to authorities on old ivory, indicate older ivory works.

The crucifix watch form was quite popular in the Renaissance. Anthony Turner’s book Early Scientific Instruments, page 181, Figure 193, illustrates a brass crucifix sundial dated 1589, now in the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois. It is similar to, but somewhat smaller than, the subject ivory crucifix watch. Klaus Maurice illustrates in Die Deutsche Raderuhr a crucifix watch c. 1600. Another example of an ivory crucifix sundial can be found in The Book of Clocks. This highly detailed time work, 1-5/8" X 4", from the National Museum, Nurenberg, features an inclined dial and is signed Georgius Hartman, Nornberg 1544. The J.P. Morgan watch collection of 170 watches that is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has examples of early 17th century metal crucifix watches also having similar religious themes, as do other collections of early watches. In 1995 Antiquorum auctioned a beautiful crucifix watch by Edward East, c. 1630; the dial depicted Christ on the cross. Catherine Cardinal’s book Watches, page 120, has a brief review of crucifix watches of the early 17th century. Page 121 therein illustrates a gilt silver crucifix case, dated c. 1630, with religious scenes. Pages 11, 24, and 33 also illustrate other early crucifix watches.

All the illustrations of crucifix watches I have seen invariably show the hinge at the top of the cross. This example is hinged at the end of the left cross arm, and has an opaque ivory cover over the dial to protect the single hand. Other watches of the late 16th and early 17th century had some form of hinged transparent or pierced cover over the dial to protect the hand and yet permit reading of the time without lifting the cover. This suggests my ivory crucifix watch is an earlier style, unbalanced when opened like a book while hanging from the bail at the top of the cross, and it lacks ease of readability with an opaque cover. lf the watch was a 19th century forgery it would seem that the style would have more closely followed known examples of early crucifix watches. Antiquorum’s edition, Treasures of the Kremlin Masterpieces of Horology, page 68, describes a crucifix watch forgery in the Kremlin collection. It has a rock crystal case typical of the early 17th century. The movement has a fusee with chain; the cock is secured by a screw. The text states, “Such Watches were sold as souvenirs to enthusiastic collectors, during the Gothick (sic) revival at the end of the nineteenth century. The Kremlin watch, of which the movement is made with elements coming from 18th century watches, is one of a series of designs made in Germany and almost certainly produced by the firm Keks und Schwartz in Munich.”

If any watches of any form or construction prior to 1600 exist, which a forger could copy, I have been unable to find any reference to such examples, other than the watch mentioned above. There is nothing about this ivory watch that suggests it is a forgery, except that it is astonishing that such a watch might be genuinely what it appears to be. Several knowledgeable individuals have made such comments as, “I have never seen anything like it, so it must be a forgery.” Others have accepted an early date for the crucifix watch, as have I. Absence of proof that the watch is of the 16th century is not proof it is a forgery.

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