NO. 09190/12127

The present timepiece is a superb example of one of Charles Frodsham’s six-minute tourbillons, awarded a Class A Kew Observatory Certificate in 1906.

Archives held by Charles Frodsham & Co. record some 66 tourbillons manufactured and sold by the firm between 1898 and 1934. The majority were open face keyless lever timepieces with up and down indication, usually with a tourbillon carriage of 1-minute rotation. To date, just four watches are recorded as having 6-minute carriages, including the present watch.

Tourbillon watches with additional complications are also recorded; including repeaters, perpetual calendars, chronographs, and clockwatches, with perhaps the most famous group being the watches ordered by the New York financier, John Pierpoint Morgan for presentation as a 'golden welcome' to incoming partners of the Morgan bank. These pieces were all to the same specification with minute repeating, and split seconds chronograph with minute recording, in addition to the tourbillon carriage.

40 of the Frodsham tourbillons were sent to the Kew Observatory, and later Teddington, for rigorous testing to gain a coveted Kew 'A' certificate.

Charles Frodsham (1810-1871) was a leading manufacturer of high-quality clocks, watches and chronometers and the last active member of a family that had played a prominent role in London clockmaking since the late 18th century. In 1840, he became a partner of John Roger Arnold who inherited his famous father's business.

At the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, Frodsham exhibited a three quarter plate calibre signed with the letters "AD. FMSZ", a cryptogram for the year 1850. The code is formed by the numerical sequence of the letters in "Frodsham," with a "Z" for zero. The firm subsequently used the code for its most important timepieces.

The movement of the present watch was supplied by Nicole Nielsen, who, towards the end of the Victorian era and for the first 30 years of the 20th century, crafted some of the finest and most complicated English watches ever made. The firm also worked closely with Charles Frodsham.

The case is made by Frodsham’s son Harrison Mill Frodsham (1849-1922), supplier of the cases for the house’s best watches. He took over the firm after his father’s dead.

The off-white dial was supplied by Frederick Willis, renowned for his high quality dials made for the United Kingdom’s most celebrated watchmakers.