J Powers's video: Verge Fusee Pocket Watch from 1772

Verge Fusee Pocket Watch. The watchmaker is John Holmes of Strand, London. Based on my research, the watch movement was made around 1772 (yes, it's that old). The squared pillars were out of style by the 1780s in favor of rounded pillars, so it likely dates to the 1760s or 1770s. Based on other Holmes' examples (and their serial numbers), I believe this particular watch was made around 1772, give or take. John Holmes has the following listing in Britten's book on early English watchmakers: "156 Strand, near Somerset House. He seems to have been one among the leading mechanicians, and when a turret clock at Greenwich Hospital was destroyed by fire in 1779 was given the order for a new one, in connection with the design of which he sought the advice of Smeaton and Ludlam; a gold watch by him is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; it belonged to William Pitt and bears the Pitt crest, a heron holding an anchor in its right claw; the Wetherfield collection contained two long mahogany case clocks of his manufacture, one a particularly choice example of Chippendale dating from about 1770, and another about 20 years later; he was one of the experts appointed by the select committee of the House of Commons in 1791 to report on Mudge's timekeeper. George Yonge succeeded him in 1798."