This is definitely one of my most unusual pocket watches, if not the most unusual. The movement of this watch is pretty straightforward enough -- it's a nice English verge fusee in a sterling silver pair case with a high domed "bullseye" crystal, dating to about 1830. It has a lovely hand-pierced balance cock and is signed "J. Richens". A nice example of a pair cased verge fusee, to be sure, but nothing spectacular.
The dial, however, is another thing all together! It's hard to know where to even begin to describe it. To start with, it only has one hand -- the minute hand. The minutes are recorded by the outer chapter ring which goes from 0 to 60. In the center of the dial, however, is a wheel which revolves throughout the day. Half the wheel shows a moon against a background of stars, and the other half shows a sun with radiant beams of light. The sun and moon point to the hours, which are laid out along the inner chapter ring. This ring, though, is only a half circle, with the roman numbers from VI-XII on the left side, and the numbers I-VI on the right. As the sun sets on the right, the moon rises on the left, and vice versa.
I have never seen anything like this and really don't know what to make of it. The dial is reminscent of something that would have been made many years earlier than the age of the watch itself. I suppose it's possible that the dial of a much earlier watch was fitted to this one when the original watch died. I suspect, however, that the dial was custom made to fit this watch and was modeled after an older style watch.
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