UNSIGNED, CIRCA 1800

Based on the inscription on the dial of the present watch it was made to commemorate the Polish Constitution of 3 May 1791. It was drafted between 6 October 1788 and 3 May 1791, and adopted as a "Government Act" by the Sejm (parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on 3 May 1791. The constitution was designed to redress political defects of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; the system of "Golden Liberty" had conferred disproportionate rights on the nobility, and over time had increasingly corrupted politics. The historian Norman Davies describes the Constitution of 3 May 1791, as "the first constitution of its type in Europe"; other historians call it the world's second oldest constitution, after the U.S. Constitution that had come into effect in 1789.

Still today, the 3 May is commemorated as Constitution Day by the Polish community.