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Influential Watchmakers: John Arnold

John Arnold

The second of a series of articles looking at influential watchmakers, this week I take a look at the life and works of John Arnold – an English watchmaker often held in the same regard as Abraham-Louis Breguet. In fact, he and Breguet were good friends, and Arnold even sent his son to serve at Breguet’s apprentice. With many accolades and innovative breakthroughs in watchmaking, John Arnold’s story is one worth telling.

John Arnold

John Arnold is considered as one of the greatest and most innovative watchmakers of all time. His work contributed to explorers of the age being able to determine their longitude at sea and even introduced the term ‘chronometer’ which is still in use today. Personally, I believe that Arnold should be far more well-known than he is, and I hope that after reading this article you will agree!

Born in 1736 in Bodmin, Cornwall, the young Arnold served as an apprentice to his father who was a clockmaker. At the age of 19 in 1755, Arnold left England for Holland to stay with relatives where he spent the next two years refining his watchmaking skills working in the Hague, before returning to England in 1757. Whilst in Holland, Arnold learned to speak fluent German.

It was an encounter with a gentleman named William McGuire that ultimately served to open the doors for Arnold to elevate his watchmaking such that by the he was in his mid-twenties Arnold was a well-known and reputable watchmaker based in London’s Strand in Devereux Court. This encounter was in 1762, when McGuire approached Arnold for him to repair a repeating watch. Such was the impression Arnold left on McGuire, he offered Arnold a loan to go ahead and set up his own watch business, which he duly did.

Chronometer-maker John Arnold

John Arnold (1736-1799)

Just two years later, in 1764, John Arnold was introduced to King George III and presented him with an incredibly minute repeating watch that repeated the hours, and both half and quarter hours. Not only that, but this contained the first ever ruby cylinder. This watch was mounted in a ring measuring around 15mm in diameter – I cannot even begin to fathom the skill and dexterity required to produce such a thing in 1764!

King George III rewarded Arnold’s ingenuity with 500 guineas, and it is said that when the then Emperor of Russia offered Arnold 1000 guineas to make a copy for him, Arnold declined.

Arnold made a second watch for King George III in 1768, this time it was a gold and enamel piece with even more technical complexity, the complications now including minute repetition and a centre seconds hand. This watch was named “Number 1”, a designation that Arnold applied to his works that he deemed notable – over the course of his career, there were twenty such designations he used.

Marine Chronometers

John Arnold is well known for his work with marine chronometers. As long voyages at sea became more and more prevalent through the 17th and 18th Centuries, the challenges with navigation came more into focus. Without an equivalent of the modern-day GPS, being able to ascertain one’s location at sea became a real challenge and one that was crucial to solve.

Whilst it was relatively easy to determine the latitudinal position (the north-south position) by using the sun’s position at midday, it was the longitudinal position (the east-west position) was the challenge. The early navigators were forced to use dead reckoning, essentially relying on knowing how long you have travelled in a particular direction and at what speeds. Of course, this approach can be incredibly inaccurate, and sometimes the result was tragic for those on board.

One key facet in solving this problem was being able to accurately record the passage of time. The Longitude Act was passed in Parliament in 1714, offering rewards for those able to demonstrate different levels of accuracy in being able to determine longitude. These rewards were determined by The Board of Longitude, which awarded over £100,000 to individuals including John Harrison, Thomas Mudge and John Arnold between 1714 and 1828, when it was disbanded.

John Arnold’s first marine chronometers were presented to the board in 1770, with the benefit of being able to be produced for as little as 60 guineas. Arnold was awarded £200 to continue experimenting and improving his designs for marine chronometers, albeit this work did not surpass the accuracy requirements to meet the full prize being awarded by the Board of Longitude.

Nonetheless, Arnold’s marine chronometers were aboard some significant voyages, including that of Captain James Cook on his second voyage between 1772 and 1775. During this voyage, he circumnavigated the globe as far south as possible with the goal of determining whether there was any great land mass at the southernmost point of the globe.

A Marine Chronometer by John Arnold’s Son, John Roger Arnold, from 1802

A Marine Chronometer by John Arnold’s Son, John Roger Arnold, from 1802

Between 1772 and 1775, Arnold was also working on pocket watches, where he continued to experiment and improve the accuracy of his pieces. During this time, he developed a pivoted detent escapement with a compensating bi-metallic balance and helical balance spring – the goal of which was to reduce the contact between the balance and escapement and thereby achieve greater levels of accuracy (the same assertion which led Dr. George Daniels to develop his co-axial escapement – you can read more about the co-axial escapement here).

The development of this escapement marked John Arnold’s first patent, awarded in 1775.

John Arnold’s Innovations

In a continued effort to strive for greater levels of accuracy in his pocket watches, Arnold ultimately produced his finest piece in 1779 with ‘Pocket Watch 1/36’. When trialled at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the watch was lauded for its accuracy and precision. Indeed, John Arnold published the results of the trial entitled “An Account kept during Thirteen Months in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich of the Going of a Pocket Chronometer, made on a new Construction”, copies of which can even be purchased online!

You might have noticed in the title of this report the mention of a “Pocket Chronometer” – this phrase was coined by Arnold to reflect its superior accuracy. The term “chronometer” has since gone on to become a term we still use today for modern watches which have been certified by Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres, or COSC.

Pocket Watch by John Arnold, signed John Arnold & Son

Pocket Watch by John Arnold, signed John Arnold & Son

In 1782, Arnold filed his second patent for his ‘terminal curves’ for his helical balance spring. This allowed for better isochronism, or more regular and consistent pulsations in the balance spring, making the timekeeping of the pocket watch, and thus its precision, more accurate. It also allowed for easier and more accurate adjustments to be made. In essence this is the invention of the overcoil balance spring which is still used today.

John Arnold is also widely acknowledged to have developed the concept of the tourbillon, although he unfortunately passed away before he was able to develop the idea to fruition. However luckily for Arnold, he had befriended a rather talented watchmaker in France…

John Arnold and Abraham-Louis Breguet

In 1792, the Duke of Orléans visited Arnold on a trip to England and showed him a timepiece that he had purchased from a watchmaker named Abraham-Louis Breguet in France. Arnold was so impressed with what he had seen that he immediately visited Paris to meet with Breguet.

Abraham-Louis Breguet and John Arnold became good friends over the years that followed, clearly holding one another with high mutual regard – both Arnold and Breguet even sent both their sons to serve apprenticeships under the other – John Arnold’s son John Roger Arnold serving under Abraham-Louis Breguet in France, and Breguet’s son Louis-Antoine serving his apprenticeship with John Arnold in England.

The pair willingly shared their ideas and discoveries with each other; Breguet went on to incorporate Arnold’s overcoil balance spring in his own work and went on to create a working tourbillon in 1795 which he patented in 1801, two years after John Arnold passed.

Such was the respect that Breguet held for John Arnold, in 1808 he presented his first tourbillon escapement fitted in one of Arnold’s pocket chronometers to Arnold’s son, with an inscription reading:

Hommage de Breguet à la mémoire révérée d’Arnold, offert à son fils. An 1808”

which translates as a befitting tribute:

Breguet’s homage to the revered memory of Arnold, given to his son AD 1808”

John Arnold retired from watchmaking in 1796 and passed his company to his son, John Roger Arnold (1769-1843), before he passed away in 1799 in Kent, England. At the time he died, he was known throughout the world as a famous watchmaker and the inventor of the precision pocket chronometer.

In summary

The history of watchmaking is something which appeals so greatly to me, I find it fascinating to learn about what individuals in these times were able to do with the tools available to them at the time.

John Arnold was admitted as a member into the Clockmaker’s Company in 1783, and his son John Roger Arnold went on to serve as the Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in 1817. There are several examples of pieces by John Arnold on display in the Clockmaker’s Museum at the Science Museum in London (you can read about my visit to the Clockmaker’s Museum here) which I think is well worth exploring and certainly helps to bring these aspects of history to life.

Today, the Arnold & Son brand continues, having been relaunched in 1995, and continues to celebrate the traditions and innovation of the great watchmaker, John Arnold. You can visit Arnold & Son’s website, here.

If you have any questions, please get in touch via our Contact page, or via our Instagram.

 

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