A chapter ring is the circular band on a clock or watch dial on which the hours are marked, usually in Roman numerals, together with the minute or quarter-hour divisions. On early clocks it was often a separate ring of silvered brass applied to a brass dial plate, while on painted, enamel and later dials it is simply printed or painted on the surface.
The chapter ring is an important aid to dating English clocks. Early lantern clocks and one-handed clocks have a ring divided only into hours and quarters on the inner edge, read by a single hour hand. Longcase and bracket clocks of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries usually have both a quarter-hour track inside the numerals and a minute track around the outer edge, with half-hour markers between the hours that become simpler and smaller as the century progresses. The width of the ring, the style of the numerals and the presence of minute numbers all changed over time. Collectors look for crisply engraved, original rings with good silvering, as resilvering and replaced or married dials can affect value considerably.
