This charming portrait of Cosimo I de Medici, Duke of Florence, shows a man about town holding his nice new fancy gold watch. Amazingly, however, this portrait was painted in 1574 which means German or northern watchmakers were plying their wares as far as Italy during this period.

The portrait shows the Duke holding up his single-handed watch – it is more like an alarm clock than a watch – in a pose that would signify his power and wealth.

“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 is on display at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Thanks, Lil Tommy!

It’s a little known fact that watchmakers like to note the time and date of their work on the inside cases of watches. If you ever have something repaired at a watch shop, chances are there’s a little note – “change battery”, “crystal” – in the case. This is fairly common and it’s fun to open an old watch and find notes from long-gone watchmakers secreted inside.

Well, this note is a doozy. In 1861, a watchmaker named Jonathan Dillon wrote “Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels’ and ‘thank God we have a government” on the eve of the Civil War. He probably used a tiny engraving tool and he literally wrote all over the inside of the watch, under the face, in a spot the no one would probably ever see.

His story was first written down in the New York Times in the early 1900s and yesterday the great-great-grandson of Dillon, Doug Stiles, watched as a watchmaker opened the case to reveal the writing inside.

The watch appears to be a Waltham William Ellery from Connecticut in a gold case with fleur de lys hands and Roman numerals. Some are also saying it was a British watch but it looks like a standard Civil War railroader.