This page includes large graphics, please be patient. In the 17th and 18th century Baroque art period, time was less insisting, and artisans of the old world devoted countless hours fashioning intricate covers to protect the delicate balance wheels of fine watches. These covers, or watchcocks were placed on the movement and inside the watch cases, thereafter seen only on infrequent occasions when the cases were opened.
All illustrations are approximately three times actual size.
Each watchcock usually began as a thin piece of brass. Once cut to shape, the round plate was pierced, filed painstakingly and hand engraved with intricate designs, and finally firegilded. The composition of the design was usually very elaborate and based on a star, wheel, rosette, architectural form, or even the artisan's name or initials. In the design of each watchcock, one may find birds, dragons, dolphins, lions, snakes, cherubs, heraldic and Masonic symbols, bizarre and grotesque faces, mythological animals, baskets of flowers, urns, or even human heads in full face or profile. The most wondrous fact of all is that each watchcock is truly unique.