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BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)<br />
Pic: Dreweatts/BNPS<br />
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Historic movement.<br />
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Ding Dong - Historic 'lost' timepeice from the great longtitude race emerges for sale...with a whopping £200,000 price tag.<br />
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A historic 356 year old timepiece which first attempted to solve the problem of finding longitude at sea has emerged for sale.<br />
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The Bruce-Oosterwijck timepiece was devised by Dutch timekeeper Severjin Oosterwijck in 1662 at the behest of Scottish nobleman Alexander Bruce.<br />
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Navigating the seas in the mid-17th century was a precarious proposition as there was no way of measuring your longitude (east to west position) as you approached land, leading to numerous shipwrecks.<br />
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The clocks of the time were not accurate or stable enough for the vital timekeeping needed for precise measurements of longitude.<br />
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One hundred years before English clockmaker Jim Harrison finally solved the longitude riddle with his ground-breaking sea watch, the Bruce-Oosterwijck timepiece intended to do likewise.