Over the course of the years, I have come upon a number of Pocket Watches which were fitted with a "Bull's Eye Crystal" of glass. They seem to sort of "magnify" the face, but then again, not really. I have not found any information of any real substance about them. Anybody know if this was a "fad" at some time? Was there a real purpose for these that someone knows about? What have you to offer about these?

Here's an old discussion about this very topic you might find of interest.

Unusual Crystal --- "Bullseye!"

Regard! Mark

Thanks, Mark. Either I didn't spell it right when I searched or the arthritis in the fingers may have "spell checked" it for me. . . Hahahaha!

I couldn't believe I didn't find anything. Oh well, Now we have it. Fun, huh?

I have few if any one is looking for them just let me know the size.

Bullseye crystals were probably more desirable since they did have a little something extra, and for whatever reason, stayed in demand for a long time. I don't think the pontil mark theory holds up too well; when high dome crystals with the flat bullseye were made, I suspect a 3" sphere was blown from which 4-5 crystals could be cut. For a sphere this small ...and even for much larger spheres, the only thing attached would have been the blowpipe and that portion of the sphere would have been thrown back into the cullet. It's a pretty simple matter to grind and polish a flat depression on a good piece rather than salvage the distorted end-part. For the the raised or "empire" crystals with the concave bullseye seen on later English/Swiss/French lever fusee watches, The process was similar. The spherical segments were re-heated and stuffed into molds to acquire the empire profile. Then an abrasive radius wheel was used to grind the concave depression. Almost every type of antique watch crystal started life as a blown sphere or cylinder; that was the only way to get 2 parallel surfaces since flat glass technology did not exist until much later.

William