Front, Back,
Movement, Back inside, Dial
off movement, Dial back, Balance
view, Close-up of movement, 2nd
close-up of movement, Overcoil, Escapement
locking, Under dial, DeLong
note, 2nd view of DeLong note, Glass
cuvette, Len Dionne note
I first saw this watch when my friend Len Dionne brought it to one of the MIT Watch Club meetings. The watch would only run for a few seconds (and still does not run properly). Under the dial is a note from Charles DeLong dated 5/25/1891 in Albany, NY. The date is hard to make out and Len's note apparently says 5/25/1871. Since DeLong was only 9 weeks old at that time, the later date is certainly correct.
The watch has a Robin escapement with a lever for locking and a detent for unlocking. One of the lever pallets is hidden by the mechanism and is difficult to see in the photographs. Another friend has a similar ebauche with a Robin escapement that is signed Audemars. It is likely that Audemars originally made this watch for Grossclaude.
Since there is a bridge for the escape wheel that looks different from the rest of the movement, we presume that DeLong did some kind of work on the escapement.
The fact that the watch does not run reliably is emphasized by the drawing that DeLong included with the signature of a man hanging from a gallows. Len's surmise, and I think a good one, is that DeLong felt either he or the original designer should have been hung for the work on the watch. There is another repair signature from 3 years earlier in 1888 also under the dial.
The regulator is also interesting with no extension for the regulator pins. They come down from the retaining ring through a slot cut in the balance cock. This feature is also found in Fred McIntyre's hand made watch where it is situated in the body of the cock. It seems to also presage the hidden regulator on the McIntyre Watch design.