Hidden Message Inside Lincoln's Pocket Watch

Two watchmakers managed to engrave secret messages inside President Lincoln's watch. It seems even the watchmakers were divided during the Civil War.

Jonathan Dillon, an Irish immigrant and a watchmaker, was repairing Lincoln's watch at the time when he heard the news that Fort Sumter was attacked. So he unprofessionally dared to scratch in some of his personal writings on the watch of a very important client. The message reads as follows:


Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. J Dillon
April 13, 1861 Washington Thank God we have a government. Jonth Dillon

Then another watchmaker came a few years later and wrote his counter message:

L.E. Grofs Sept 1864 Wash D.C.
Jeff Davis

The messages are cleverly etched on the back of the movement, so when the dial is assembled back in, nobody really can see them.

These messages were only rediscovered after Dillon's descendent, Doug Stiles, contacted the Smithsonian about his family legend. An elderly watchmaker named George Thomas did an honor of reopening the watch on March 10th, 2009, while Dillon's descendent and others excitedly waited to witness "the moment of truth".

President Lincoln probably would never have known that his watchmakers had intentionally damaged his watch, or that the name Jeff(erson) Davis was so close to him during the war.

Another bitter yet intriguing sidenote in history, I suppose.

The Watch of Korea's Last Emperor

Just recently this gold pocket watch, crafted by the legendary watch manufacturer Vacheron Constantin of Geneva, Switzerland, was offered and sold at an art auction in Seoul. What makes this valuable watch extremely fascinating is that it once belonged to Korea's last emperor, Sunjong (순종; 純宗; also known as the Yunghui Emperor).

Made in 1910, the watch weighs 75g and is 49mm in length. The back of the watch case has an engraving of Ihwamun (이화문; 李花紋), the Imperial Seal of the Korean Empire; the name of the master watchmaker is also engraved inside the case. This suggests that Sunjong specially ordered this watch from Vacheron Constantin back in 1910. Because the watch is identical to the one that appears on the photo album of Sunjong's funeral, it is without doubt genuine.

Back in the late and the early 20th century, mechanical pocket watches and clocks were viewed by Koreans as one of the mesmerizing and exclusive modern marvels offered by the western civilization. It may be not so surprising, then, that Sunjong had great affection towards them.

According to historic records, Sunjong collected great number of timepieces and went on to creat his own private clock hall in Changdeokgung Palace. He was said to greatly enjoy the moment when all his clocks and (repeater) watches simultaneously sounded their hours with different sounds.



During the time when Korea was controlled and dominated by the Japanese, Sunjong, dismally the last monarch of the nation that longer existed, might have found bitter solace by letting his timepieces to measure the flow of history that was no longer under his control. He died in 1926, but the watch survived.

Sold at 125,000,000 won (112,750 USD), the watch is now at the hands of an unnamed private collector. I hope he does appreciate the sadness behind this special relic.

Elgin National Watch Co.

"The screws in a watch number forty-four, or more than one-quarter Of all its pieces. The Screw and Steel Department is one of the largest in the factory. Its magical little automata, run by nimble-fingered girls, convert shining steel wire into infinitesimal screws, pare down their heads, and cut slots in them for microscopic screwdrivers. They are polished to perfect smoothness, and then, like every other part of the watch, brought to "spring temper"-the temper of the sword-blade-by beating, which leaves them of a rich, deep blue..."

(From Making Watches By Machinery by Albert D. Richardson, Harper's Magazine, July 1869)

The Page in Progress...

Antique Grandfather Clocks

An English Grandfather Clock (Paul Rimbault, 1773, London)

Grandfather Clocks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(By Wynlok, Flickr)

A Grandfather Clock at Rosehill House, Coalbrookdale, England
(By Elliott Brown)

(By Dan Brady)

(By Duncan McNeil)

I love antique grandfather clocks.

Grandfather clocks, also called longcase or tall-case clocks, emerged in the 18th century with the invention of the anchor escapement around 1670. The verge escapement, which was widely in use for clock movements that were made before, required very wide pendulum swings to run; therefore, longer pendulums such as the ones found in grandfather clocks were not practical before the 18th century.

The clock consists of the hood, which houses the movement (mechanism) of the clock, the waist, which houses the pendulum, and the base.

To me, unlike today's grandfather clocks, antique clocks seem to possess certain elegance and humaine texture. Many old grandfather clocks have painted dials, and almost all of them have cases that are fully enclosed without having any glass openings. Some cases feature exotic wood veneers and beautiful craftmanship, while others were made simply with English Oak or mahogany. It seems English made many grandfather clocks during the 18th and 19th century, and the dials of these clocks bear their origins, such as London or Cockermouth.


As a child, I really enjoyed reading a collection of fairytale stories. In one of the stories (by Grimm, I later found out), a wolf attacked a house full of young lambs and ate them while their mother was away. The youngest, however, escaped by hiding inside of a grandfather clock. It was so impressionable that I wanted to hide inside if I found one.

The first time I had personally encountered such an old grandfather clock was back when I visited my mother's workplace about a year ago. It was there, a remarkably beautiful old clock that did not work, standing quietly at a lobby. It was from Dartington, England, and its metal dial was one of its fine features. I was rather surprised at the pendulum, which looked so simple, and the weights, which looked rather earthy. When I swinged the pendulum, the clock's second hand turned second by second as it completed one swing.

It made a sound, a sound that resembled a heartbeat. For how many years did it make that same sound?

I look forward to having an old grandfather clock as my lifelong companion.

Marie Antoinette's Breguet Pocket Watch

Breguet No. 1160, a Recreation of Breguet No. 160 "Marie Antoinette"
(Photo By Mike Disher)

Abraham Louis Breguet was a brilliant 19th-century clock/watchmaker and a horologist who established his successful career in Paris. His contributions to horology include Breguet balance spring, Breguet hands, the pare-chute (the anti-shock device for the balance pivots), and the tourbillon.

Breguet also had many eminent clients, including Napoleon Bonaparte, Caroline Napoleon the Queen of Naples, Czar Alexander I of Russia, King Louis XVI of France, and Queen Marie Antoinette.

Marie Antoinette already had Breguet's perpétuelles at the time of Breguet No. 160's commission, and was deeply captivated by it. In 1783, a man, who was possibly Marie Antoinette's lover, commissioned Breguet to make the most complicated watch ever created for the queen without a limit to its cost. The queen never knew about the watch or saw it completed, for she was later guillotined during the French Revolution.

Although Breguet had ties with the French royalty, he survived the French Revolution by temporarily fleeing to Switzerland, and after the revolution he continued making watches for clients, including Bonapartes. He also continued making Marie Antoinette's watch until his death in 1823. The watch, a masterpiece, was completed in 1827, four years after Breguet's death and 44 years after the commission.

The Page in Progress...

Orreries

Engraving from The Universal Magazine (1749)
Showing John Rowley's Orrery

Grand Orrery (Picture by Marcin Wichary)

Thomas Heath's Grand Orrery, c. 1740 (Adler Planetarium)

Engraving Showing the Heliocentric Universe from Harmonia Macrocosmica (1661)

The orrery is a mechanical machine designed to precisely imitate the movements of planets, and is usually driven by a clock. The origin of its unusal name is a British nobleman named Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery, who supported a clockmaker named George Graham to build such machine in the 18th century.

Such mechanical devices must have symbolized revolutionary ideas that captivated Europeans during the Enlightenment. There is an irresistible charm behind an idea that the universe follows certain logical and mathematical laws, and orreries, or cosmic clockworks, are rather well-suited to beautifully convey such an idea. Orreries, moreover, were designed to describe the heliocentric system, an idea that was revolutionary and controversial in its own right at the time.

The heliocentric system forever removed the Earth from the center of the universe. Perhaps it was the first step that stripped the humanity of its sense of self sanctity...


I have a weak spot for orreries. I want one.