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JOHNSON WALKER & TOLHURST, London Movement with Kew ‘A’ test rating, c. 1890

Movement by Johnson Walker & Tolhurst Ltd., London.   Gilt brass three-quarter plate lever movement with going barrel, compensated balance with large gold timing screws and 17 or 19 jewels (those for the escape-wheel and lever being capped at one end at least), including diamond endstone.   Stem-wound and pin-set.   Signed on bottom plate, No. 50114 / ESPECIALLY GOOD / KEW “A” CERTIFICATE. / 80.3 MARKS. / 80, Aldersgate Str~t / London / E.C. / Johnson, Walker & Tolhurst, Ltd.   White enamel dial with arabic chapter-ring and subsidiary seconds dial, single-sunk;  blued steel hands.   Lacks second hand.   Diameter 40mm.

From 1884 onwards, the Observatory at Richmond Park, Kew, London, was the scene of annual trials of watches and chronometers for which makers and private owners could submit individual movements.   Each entry was tested for 45 days in a variety of positions and climatic conditions.   80.3 marks is not a record-breaking figure (scores of over 90 were regularly obtained by 1900) but it still does the makers great credit, given that this is essentially a conventional single-roller lever watch competing against movements fitted with chronometer escapements, tourbillons, auxiliary compensation systems and similar exotica.

Note the bulbous stem of the hour-hand.   This shows that the movement was originally installed in a half-hunter case;  it enabled the two hands to be told apart when viewed through the small central porthole of the front cover, their outer ends (and therefore their difference in length) being concealed. — Coincidentally, the Observatory had been the scene of King George III's personal trials of John Harrison's No. 4 chronometer, which helped to overthrow the hostile conclusions of the Board of Longitude after the watch's second sea trial.