Superb Very Very Rare Charles Clay 22k gold Repousse verge fusee pocket watch. Has a classical scene outer case very crisp with no real wear or damage.  Very Few of these are in existence. Very few clocks or pocket watches from Charles Clay are available for sale as most are in Museums and Private Collections.Bought by  family in 1741 from the wife of Charles Clay  purchased by the Count of Limburg Stirum.
Watch was used by Charles Clay and passed to his wife upon his death.  Since 1741 is has stayed within the Limburg Stirum  family till present day and again available for sale after 276 years.This is one of  four gold pocket watches I know of  in existence, by Charles Clay .  Pocket Watch from Charles Clay London England  made in 1730's.  It is made from solid 22 karat gold and weighs 115 grams.  The outside case is 50.18 mm // 1.9755 inches// 1 125/128 inches wide/diameter. The depth of the watch is 28.27 mm // 1 7/64 inches // 1.1130 inches.
The inside case is 42.54 mm // 1.6745 inches //
1 43/64 inches wide/diameter.

It works perfectly and is in excellent condition. Has a wonderful movement.  It is fully hallmarked and stamped.  It closes perfectly tight and keeps excellent time. As soon as the watch is wound it starts automatically without any assistance; which is a sign of a quality movement. The face is free of cracks and chips. The body has the usual fine surface rubs from normal use and polishing.KEEP SCROLLING DOWN 80 PICTURES OF THE WATCHHistory of Charles Clay's Work This remarkable plaque is the front plate of a musical clock and combines fine and decorative arts; the work of leading sculptor, Michael Rysbrack, decorative painter Jacopo Amigoni and clock- and watch-maker Charles Clay who produced the movements. This plate, of which the arched-dial aperture at the centre has now been filled by a pair of curtains, formed part of a sophisticated clock that was exported to Italy and subsequently broken up into its constituent parts. Charles Clay settled in London from his native Yorkshire by 1720. He spent the next twenty years creating musical clocks in the form of miniature temples which were advertised in contemporary newspapers and shown during his life time to members of the Royal Family. The clocks played tunes from contemporary Italian opera performed in London including those transcribed by George Frideric Handel for Mr Clay’s use. The manuscript record of these tunes is preserved in the British Library. Developing a market for such expensive creations was a challenge. In 1739, a  2s 6d ticket to view the latest creation in Charles Clay’s own house in the Strand, also served as a raffle which might bring the musical clock to the visitor’s own home. On his death bed Charles Clay instructed his wife to destroy a clock which had cost him so much time and expense to bring to perfection.  However, his widow wisely exhibited two of his masterpieces in 1741 and 1743 charging admission. The Temple and Oracle of Apollo and The Temple of the Four Grand Monarchies of the World were both eventually acquired for the British Royal Collection and can be seen today at Windsor Castle and Kensington Palace. Contemporary advertisements noted that these clocks provided an extraordinarily accurate rendering of the composer’s original intentions. They thus offer the earliest recordings of tunes from Handel’s operas. Other versions of this plaque cast in both gilt bronze and in silver can be seen on musical clocks by Charles Clay preserved in Beijing, Birmingham, and Naples. The close working relationship between sculptors, goldsmiths, painters and musicians was harnessed to produce an expensive souvenir of the fashionable Italian Opera season. Clay’s clocks played music by Geminiani and Corelli as well as Handel. The clock’s organ mechanism would be activated by making Apollo strum his lyre; contemporaries would have recognized the allusion to the sculpture of Handel in the guise of Apollo (now also in the V&A) which was commissioned for London’s Vauxhall Gardens from the sculptor Louis François Roubiliac in 1738. Acquired with the Hugh Phillips Bequest, support from Alan Rubin and the Cahn Family Foundation.   The is the London home where the composer George Frideric Handel lived from 1723 until his death in 1759. In the 1730s, Handel provided music for a series of musical clocks created by the watch and clockmaker Charles Clay. These more than man-sized, elaborate pieces of furniture were fitted with chimes and/or pump organs that at the hour and every quarter played musical excerpts from popular operas and sonatas. Until 23 February the Handel House Museum presents an overview of Clay’s clocks in an exhibition ‘The Triumph of Music over Time’. The centrepiece is a clock on loan from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; other clocks are presented as photos on text panels. These panels are all on-line where you can also listen to some of the music that Handel arranged for Clay’s musical clocks, including two pieces from his opera Arianna in Creta. So there you have it: opera in clocks.