S# 3,120 - Experimental side lever movement with helical hairspring, bar-style plates, and 15 jewels in screwed down settings. The finish varies considerably on the eight surviving Howard helical hairspring movements currently documented. This particular example features elaborate damascening on the pallet bridge and the adjoining areas of the dial plate. Other examples are line damascened, and still others are neither damascened nor elaborately engraved. The earliest known helical hairspring example is 1,105. These bar style movements had no pillars but had hogged-out top plates, a nontrivial construction difference from the contemporary six-pillar movements that would have entailed different production methods. The mystique-laden serial number range between 3,101 and 3,300, most of which never was used, was reserved for special experimental movements like this one. How many others were there? The 18K gold hunting case, by Chas. Jacot & Bro., bears an 1870 owner's inscription, possibly added after the watch originally was sold, for the "Reverend G. H. Minor."
