William Payne

[Seismic]

I recently purchased from a Swedish auction site three watches one of which was advertised as a Pocketwatch by William Payne 165 New Bond Street London dated 1850, an eminent clock and watchmaker during the 1800s. In due course the long awaited parcel arrived and with much excitment i opened up my new found gem, imagine my disappointment to discover my watch was a pedometer. I contacted the auction house and was offered a good reduction on the price which i accepted.
Anyhow the outcome is that i have discovered that William Payne was the first person to patent a Pedometer in the UK so i will add it to my collection as a talking point as it is one of the first in production.

http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p373/Seismicpocketwatcher/Pedo.jpg
http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p373/Seismicpocketwatcher/Pedo1.jpg

[Ray MacDonald]

Very interesting piece and thanks for posting the pictures.

[Bujumon]

Cool catch Seismic. Although not what you expected, it is
still v cool and certainly historic.
Any chance of posting a pic with it closed, or perhaps
of the back. It looks amazingly clean.
I wonder how it is read. Is there only the one hand?

Peace,
Scott

[Seismic]

Hi Scott from another Scot. As you can see it has 12 primary numbers these are one mile therefore max distance is 12 miles, the secondary marks are quarter miles so only one hand required. These were first used by by land owners to measure field sizes and set out boundaries.

http://forums.watchuseek.com/http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p373/Seismicpocketwatcher/DSC01541.jpghttp://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p373/Seismicpocketwatcher/DSC01543.jpg

[JimH]

http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p373/Seismicpocketwatcher/DSC01541.jpg

[Eeeb]

you adjust the length of the stride with the screw?

[Bujumon]

So Very Cool.
Thanks for posting those pix Scott.
I had never seen one before. I love the mechanism.
So basic and spotless. Wow.

Peace,
Scott