# Unusual 8-day 'Hebdomas' pocket watch.



## SteveHorsfall (Nov 25, 2017)

My beautiful, and rather unusual, new pocket watch, which arrived this morning. I bought it a few weeks ago from a seller on 'Selling Antiques'. He apologised for the delay, because he had to get it back from an auction house, but at last it's here. It's by Schild & Cie, c.1918, and is a 'Hebdomas' watch, from the Greek for week, because it's an eight-day movement, very unusually for a watch. If you've got 'Watches' by David Thompson, published by the British Museum, you can find details of another of their watches, with more complications than this, having subsidiary dials for date and day of the week, but in the same range, on pp 149-50. Mine has a small crack in the dial at bottom left, which is a pity, but it's hardly visible. The chain is a modern one that I bought a month or two ago. It didn't come with the watch. Now to see what its timekeeping's like, and adjust it as necessary.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/72157695147979200/with/44429458872/


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## SteveHorsfall (Nov 25, 2017)

The link above, in clickable form.


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## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Interesting timepiece with that 8-day movement and a rather lovely item to boot.


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## SteveHorsfall (Nov 25, 2017)

Glad you like it!


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

@SteveHorsfall I like that a lot, congratulations


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## SteveHorsfall (Nov 25, 2017)

Thanks!


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## SteveHorsfall (Nov 25, 2017)

I've decided that I might start collecting Hebdomas watches, rather than pocket watches in general. I love their art nouveau design and striking appearance, and they seem to be fairly abundant in the market, and are not all that expensive (I think they were produved in large numbers), and there are many variations on the basic design - to which end, I have just ordered this beauty. It's the last purchase I'll be making for awhile, as the substantial windfall which enabled me to splash out on lots of nice things recently is almost exhausted, but I'll buy more when I can. "Gismonda", I learn via Google, was the name of an 1890s play, and an opera, based on the play, of 1919, which is right in the period when these watches were popular, so I guess it's got something to do with the opera - an early example of tie-in merchandise?


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