The following three lots, 168 to 170, comprise three different tourbillon escapement, one of the earliest English flying tourbillons known to exist, a six minute and a one minute tourbillon, all with the addition of a Kew Observatory Certificate. Archives held by Charles Frodsham & Co. record some 66 tourbillons manufactured and sold by the firm between 1898 and 1934. The majority were open face keyless lever timepieces with up and down indication, usually with a tourbillon carriage of 1-minute rotation. To date, just four watches are recorded as having 6-minute carriages, including No. 09099 presented here as lot 169, and only one with a 12-minute carriage, No. 08895 presented here as lot 168. Tourbillon watches with additional complications are also recorded; including repeaters, perpetual calendars, chronographs, and clockwatches, with perhaps the most famous group being the watches ordered by the New York financier, John Pierpoint Morgan for presentation as a 'golden welcome' to incoming partners of the Morgan bank. These pieces were all to the same specification with minute repeating, and split seconds chronograph with minute recording, in addition to the tourbillon carriage. 40 of the Frodsham tourbillons were sent to the Kew Observatory, and later Teddington, for rigorous testing to gain a coveted Kew 'A' certificate. It was not uncommon for a particular watch to be returned to Kew for re-testing, having been re-adjusted by the watchmaker, in order to gain a better mark. So highly regarded was an 'Especially Good' certificate from the rigorous 45-day Kew testing (the longest test available in all observatories worldwide), that watchmakers vied to be included in the top watches tested. Tables were produced and published showing the top 50 watches in each particular year. This information was then often used by the watchmakers in their marketing and sales of all their watches. Paul Ditisheim and S. Smith and Sons were particularly vigorous in using the Kew trials for this purpose.

Charles Frodsham. A very fine, rare and important 18K gold openface keyless lever watch with Robert Benson North's patented twelve minute flying tourbillon

SIGNED CHAS. FRODSHAM, 08895, AD.FMSZ, BY APPOINTMENT TO THE KING, 115 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON, NO. 08895, LONDON DATE LETTER FOR 1902

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Charles Frodsham. A very fine, rare and important 18K gold openface keyless lever watch with Robert Benson North's patented twelve minute flying tourbillon
Signed Chas. Frodsham, 08895, AD.Fmsz, By Appointment to the King, 115 New Bond Street, London, No. 08895, London date letter for 1902
Nicole Nielsen gilt-finished jewelled double roller lever movement, raised barrel engraved with Honour cyphers, screwed gold chatons, blued screws, gilt flying tourbillon carriage, bimetallic compensation balance with gold poising screws, blued steel balance spring with terminal curve, diamond endstone, gold cuvette engraved J.Z.H. from J.W. Xmas 1902, white enamel dial, Roman numerals, blued steel spade hands, large sunk subsidiary seconds, heavy plain circular case, double stepped bezel and back, raised push, five-knuckle hinges, turning pendant, case and cuvette stamped with casemaker's mark HMF for Harrison Mill Frodsham, dial and movement signed and numbered
58 mm. diam.

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Listed in The Frodshams by Vaudrey Mercer, p. 276.

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With Charles Frodsham & Co. Ltd. Certificate of Origin dated 1 September 2011 and colour copies of the Kew Register of Watches Received and Dispatched, and an Abstract of the Results, where the watch was tested twice between 17 May and 30 June 1902, gaining an "A" Certificate with 76.6 marks, and again between 16 September and 30 October 1902, gaining an "A" Certificate, especially good, with 80.3 marks.

As stated in The Frodshams by Vaudrey Mercer, p. 276, the present watch obtained a Kew Class A "especially good" rating with 80.3 points in October 1902. The movement was bought from Nicole Nielson on 13 May 1902 for £35 and was described as having "An improved karrusel revolving escapement".

This watch is amongst the earliest English flying tourbillons known to exist, made one year before Robert Benson North was granted Patent No. 6737 for such a type of bridgeless tourbillon. One can therefore assume that the tourbillon offered here for sale was a working prototype for this patent, previously unnoticed as English tourbillon and karrussel regulators were generally described as "revolving escapements" during the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Consequently, Robert Benson North's patent for "improvements to revolving escapements for watches and other portable timekeepers" also preceded by 23 years the patent granted to the celebrated Alfred Helwig, considered the inventor of the flying tourbillon.

Robert Benson North (c1867-1929)
During his technical training at the British Horological Institute, Robert Benson North was awarded numerous prizes for his theoretical and practical work. In March 1898, he was appointed Director and Manager of Nicole Nielsen and Co., Ltd., and Managing Director in June of 1900.

North's importance to the firm was not only financial as he took out an interesting Patent, No 6737 in 1903, for "Improvements in Revolving Escapements for Watches and other Portable Timekeepers". It was during this period that many of the firm's most expensive watches were made, as well as a range of fabulous silver carriage clocks with tourbillon lever escapements. In 1905 he established North & Sons, producers of "Watford Speedometers".

In October 1922 North was appointed Director and Chairman of Charles Frodsham & Co., Ltd. When Robert Benson North died in 1929, his son, also named Robert Benson North, replaced his father as Director and Chairman of the firm.