Rare Champleve Dial Austrian Repeater

A rare example of an early Austrian manufactured repeating watch in excellent overall condition.  Josephus Bockh,  Linz.  1720, repeating watch in the Ilbert Collection.  The inclusion of "Fec:" (fecit, Latin for "he made it" indicates the watch was made by Bockh rather than being retailed by him.  The watch exhibits a number of idiosyncratic details which may be common to Austrian work of the period or peculiar to this maker.  So few Austrian watches survive from the period, many of which may have been signed by retailers.  Individually the details could be regarded as an interesting variation from normal but taken together point to local manufacture. Slender Egyptian pillars with three roundels. Bevelled edge to the balance rim. Repeated use of concentric "tramlines" on the plates and almost all wheels. Unusual engraved decoration below balance. Conical escape wheel. Decorative shape to the feet of the steel springs repeated on the foot of the regulator plate.

Additionally, although not uncommon, the engraved decoration found at the edge of the top plate is unusual and not normally used as extensively. It is found on the dial edge, side of dial plate, edge of the table of the cock - its foot and regulator plate, inner and outer cases.  Also of note is the use of five leaf pinions in the last three wheels of the repeating train.  Rarely used in English work after 1680 and probably not at all after 1700.