The watch was probably manufactured as a shipping company gift to a whaler. It was not unusual for the commander who brought in the biggest cargo of the year to be rewarded by shipowners with a gift. Sometimes this was a painting, in other cases a silver cup was paid out or a pocket watch. The Toledo Museum of Fine Art preserves a silver cup with engraving of a whale catch, given in 1730 by the Amsterdam shipping company Van Haalen to the Terschellinger commander Klaas Piersz. Top. The only example of a watch that served as a shipping company gift is in the collection of the museum in Wyck auf Föhr. According to inscription, this otherwise neutral watch was presented by Amsterdam shipowner Lambertus Stolk in 1765 to commander Martinus Claasen.

The pocket watch presented here is the only one that actually depicts whaling; no comparable models are known so far. The image dates back to a wood engraving from the ‘Drie Uoyagien Gedaen na Groenlandt’ by the Amsterdam publisher Gillis Joosten Saegham from the third quarter of the seventeenth century. In the text, the image is explained as follows:

‘Op volgende manier worden de Walvisschen gevangen; te weten: Soo drae men aen landt of op het Schip zijnde, een Walvisch gewaer wort, soo roeyense terstont met drie Sloepen uyt, in elck sijn ses man, daer onder is een daer toe bestelt, om den Visch te raken, die wort genoemt Harponier, en dat na de Harpoen ofte Pijl, daer mede hy de Visch schiet: en met dese drie Sloepen roeyen sy soo ras als moghelijcken is, nae den Walvisch toe, doch met sulcke voorsichtigheyt, datse niet te na by de staert komen, want met dien slaet hy vreesselijcken om: ook moeten sy wannerse dichte by komen, stilletjes roeyen, op dat hy het geraes niet hoort, en dan nae de gront duyckt: die nu op het eerste daer by komt, en hem de Harponier vermoet te raken, soo smijt hy hem met een Harpoen of Pijl met alle macht in ’t lijf, deselve Pijl is ontrent 3 voet langh, op beyde seyden met weer-haecken, op dat die niet weer uyt glijt […]’

(Whales are caught in the following way: As soon as a whale is seen on land or on the Ship, three Sloops are sent out, in each of which there are six men, one of whom is ordered to hit the whale, who is called Harponier, and that after the Harpoon or Arrow with which he shoots the whale: And with these three sloops they row, as fast as possible towards the whale, but with such care, that they do not come too close to the stern, because with it they capsize dangerously: Also, when they come close, they have to row silently, so that he doesn’t hear the noise, and then dives to the ground: if he comes close first, and avoids hitting the Harponier, he will hit him in the body with a harpoon or dart with all his might, the dart is about 3 feet long, on both sides with weathercocks, so that it doesn’t slip out again [. ..]’)