In 1631 the Company of Clockmakers was incorporated in England by Charles I., who granted them a charter prohibiting the importation of clocks, watches, and alarms. So that at this period Englishmen were sufficiently skilled in the production of horological instruments to consider their importation in the light of an intrusion. The Company consisted of a Master, three Wardens, and ten or more Assistants who had power to make by-laws for the government of all persons using the trade in or within ten miles of London. They were authorized to enter, with a constable or other officer, any ships, vessels, warehouses, shops, or other places, _where they shall suspect bad and deceitful works to be made or kept_, and if such were found they seized them in the King's name, and having proved their unworthiness, the objectionable works were broken up and destroyed. There are many instances mentioned of such 'searches' upon the Books of the Company, and although the practice has long become obsolete, for in these times of free trade no such restrictions would be tolerated, yet it would perhaps be found that some testing by a modern 'searcher' or tester would be of some protection to the public now-a-days, when thousands of watches are sold which, like Peter Pindar's razors, are intended rather for the market than for use. The following are illustrations of some time-keepers of the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | [Illustration: Ancient Watch with Dial, 1580.] | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ This is a very curious but not uncommon combination of the watch with the dial,--the latter being marked inside the watch-case and having a gnomon moving on a hinge so as to allow of its lying flat and being enclosed within the case when not in use. Our next illustration is of one of the earliest examples of a round watch made in England, the date being 1593. It contains not only a dial showing the hour, but a sort of general calendar in miniature. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | [Illustration: English Round Watch, 1593.] | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Of much about the same date is the following example in silver and brass. It is of the same style of time-keeper, and shows how our forefathers liked to know not only the time of day but the period of the month; and how they watched the moon's changes, and in a word made an almanac of their watches. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | [Illustration: Oval Watch, 1593.] | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+