VI Secrets of Time

Fig. 15a. Example with four-cased watch. 

Fig. 15b. The interior of the watch with four cases.
Fine Edward Prior English silver and tortoise shell giant quadruple cased verge and fusee antique pocket watch for the Turkish market circa 1860. 

Fig. 16a - Demo for watchpaper

Fig. 16b - embroidered watch paper

The watches featured in this section are one of many with four (Fig. 15a) or three cases. The common feature of owning a watch with several cases purports a kind of self-containment, one that takes layers upon layers, like a Russian Doll, to reach the intimate intricacies and essence of time, such that, "the pair case made of the pocket watch a sequence of layered secrets, that began with the pocket itself."
Indeed, the watch holder goes through a passing of adornments from the embellished outer case to the more simple sheen of the inner, and from there to the revealing and marvelous intricacies of the visible wheels, shafts and springs of the movement itself. (Fig. 17) The personification of the watch as a chamber of secrets reflects its function of proprietorship. 

It functioned also as a private treasure, where personalized watch papers were inserted on the back such as Fig. 16a. demonstrates. Their were often used for marketing the watchmakers' firm (Fig. 18), but also used to harbor intimate messages or imagery such as this romantic message in Fig. 16b.