# Worlds Oldest Pocket Watch.



## AlanJohn (Mar 17, 2011)

This is the worlds oldest known pocket watch. I guess you would have needed a pretty big pocket to lug this around.As Waistcoats didn't emerge untill 1675, this would have been in a side pocket I presume.


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## seemore (Oct 25, 2007)

I think they used to wear the very early watches around the kneck, and as they were not very accurate they only had an hour hand.


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## Shangas (Jan 27, 2008)

That looks like a neck watch. And pocketwatches didn't finally start getting any really decent accuracy until the 1700s.


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## brains (Apr 29, 2011)

It has legs, I reckon it's a travel clock, obviously a very old one! I know they seem to be calling it a pocket watch but I find it hard to believe that was made to go inside a pocket or even around the neck. It looks like it was meant to be picked up regularly and placed down again. Whatever is is I'd love to have it and watch it tick away!


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## ValvesRule (May 20, 2009)

I thought that this had been debunked as one of the oldest rather than the oldest.

I seem to remember that the letters 'DV' scratched on the inside had been interpreted as Roman for [A.D. 1]505, but that this had later been doubted.


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## sam. (Mar 24, 2010)

I used to have this pick as my avatar,its the oldest painting with a watch present,there's more info below taken from the BBC. 










Art experts think they may have found the world's oldest painting to feature an image of a watch.

The Science Museum is investigating the 450-year-old portrait, thought to be of Cosimo I de Medici, Duke of Florence, holding a golden timepiece.

Curators have sent their findings to renaissance experts at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, and are awaiting their comments.

The painting is being shown as part of the museum's Measuring Time gallery.

The first watches appeared shortly after 1500 in Germany and horologists believe the picture, painted by renaissance master Maso da San Friano around 1560, "may well be the oldest to show a true watch".

Coat of arms

Science Museum curator Rob Skitmore said the watch was thought to be from southern Germany.

"As Cosimo was a great patron of science and technology, it is entirely likely he would have owned a watch of this kind which he displays here with pride," he said.

"The picture shows the close linkage between science and art, especially in those days."

The painting has been in the museum's collection for 33 years after being acquired from a private donor.

As it was being taken out of storage for the gallery, curators decided to research the painting - which was when they made their discovery.

The clue to the painting's identity came when Mr Skitmore realised a seal containing the Medici coat of arms was on the back of the canvas.

He said: "In our painting Cosimo would have been about 41 and his appearance is entirely consistent with a later view of him from 1574."


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