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Object Overview
The presented object is an exceptionally rare example of a combined pocket timepiece with an integrated barometer/altimeter, manufactured around 1870 and sold in the optical shop of Francesco Avanzo, Trento, one of the most authoritative scientific-instrument retailers in the Trentino region. The device was assembled according to the international cooperative model characteristic of the last third of the 19th century: a Swiss watch movement by Fabrique d’Horlogerie de Fontainemelon (FHF), a barometric module by Jules Richard, and final assembly/retail under the Avanzo name — a typical practice among European optical and scientific shops of the period.
The instrument immediately recalls an era when European engineering romanticism still believed that an entire science could fit into a traveler’s pocket. The watch case is dense, heavy, nickel-plated, its lines clean and geometrically precise: a form born purely from function and requiring no decoration except for a thin ribbed copper wire inlaid along the perimeter of the rotating bezel. This copper thread is barely noticeable yet gives the object character — a small artistic gesture that offers the eye something to rest upon.
31948
simplex (American)
brass, gilding, glass, nickel plating, nickel silver, porcelain, steel
At the top of the case sits a large suspension bow soldered into a short cast lug; the bow rotates freely for comfortable wear on a chain or lanyard. The upper section is complemented by a yellow-brass winding crown with a large fluted (“shell-shaped”) cap, a typical solution used by factories of the 1860s–1870s.
To the left of the winding crown is an integrated push-button for setting the hands, a feature often found on complex pocket instruments. Pressing the button engages the hand-setting mechanism, allowing the user to adjust the hands by turning the crown — a system characteristic of higher-grade chronometric devices before the widespread adoption of pull-out stems. This mechanism protected the watch from accidental time changes, especially important for travelers carrying such devices in side pockets.
The instrument features a dual concentric display architecture: In the center — the watch dial, Around it — the barometric and altitude scales.
The watch dial is enamel, milky-white, with large Roman numerals and a classic minute track. The enamel has deep translucency and a soft sheen typical of high-quality mid-19th-century dials. The hands share a coaxial layout and are made of heat-blued steel, giving them a rich dark-blue tone. This shared-axis construction is a traditional chronometric standard ensuring ideal alignment and minimal play.
The barometric component belongs to a different tradition — scientific rather than horological. The barometric and altitude scales are made of silvered brass, moderately matte, with a fine protective patina. The concentric barometric scale is calibrated in centimeters of mercury from 56 to 79 and is accompanied by Italian weather indications. The rotating bezel carries a linear altitude scale in meters, up to 2400 m — no longer meteorology but altimetry, a legacy of the Alpine and military-topographic culture of the era. The bezel rotates smoothly, with characteristic resistance, allowing the altitude scale to be aligned precisely with the barometric pointer.
The case is equipped with a hinged back cover opening from below — a classic “hinged case back.” The inside surface is smooth and nickel-plated, protecting the mechanical components. When open, it reveals the Jules Richard barometric movement, bearing serial number 2989, one of the early attempts to miniaturize an aneroid for wearable instruments.
At the heart of the barometric module lies a small, roughly twenty-millimeter nickel-silver aneroid capsule, likely with an internal coil spring. Movements of the upper membrane are transmitted to the pointer shaft through a simple amplification system: an elegant main lever with a counterweight, resting on the capsule on one side and connected to the primary arbor on the other. From this arbor a fusee-like chain drives the pointer shaft. Around the pointer shaft is the obligatory spiral hairspring providing tension and return.
Behind the barometric module sits the watch movement, a Swiss cylinder escapement mechanism based on an industrial ébauche, most likely produced by Fabrique d’Horlogerie de Fontainemelon (FHF). Structurally, the movement follows the “bar movement” layout characteristic of Swiss production in the second half of the 19th century: long straight train bridges, a separate balance bridge, and a mainspring barrel with winding gear positioned beneath the upper plate. The balance is three-spoked with a flat hairspring; the escapement is a cylinder escapement (échappement à cylindre), traditionally used in slim pocket movements and ideal for combination instruments requiring a compact horological unit paired with an additional module — in this case, the Jules Richard aneroid.
The plates are gilded, the screws heat-blued, and the bridges feature clean machine finishing characteristic of Swiss industrial manufacture of the era.
Such mechanisms were widely used in combined pocket instruments where reliability and compactness were essential, allowing a fully functional watch to coexist with an additional scientific module.
Ultimately, the object appears as a complete scientific instrument in miniature, presented under the name of optician Francesco Avanzo. It is equally convincing as a watch, a pocket barometer, and a witness to an era when measuring instruments became personal companions of the traveler.
Fabrique d’Horlogerie de Fontainemelon (FHF) was founded on 31 October 1793 in the village of Fontainemelon, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Its founders were brothers Isaac and David Benguerel and brothers Julien and François Humbert-Droz. The new enterprise, originally named Benguerel & Humbert, became the first Swiss factory specializing in the production of watch ébauches under industrial conditions. Until the late 18th century Swiss watchmaking relied on a decentralized cottage-industry model, but FHF marked the transition to an industrial approach: all essential movement components were produced under one roof and then supplied to watchmakers for final assembly. FHF is considered the world’s oldest ébauche manufacturer and played a foundational role in establishing industrial watch-caliber production in Switzerland. By 1816 the company had built its first major factory and launched full-scale ébauche production, an important milestone that foreshadowed the emergence of the modern giant ETA.