The sextant is composed of circular polished brass plates with a lid that when screwed on the back of the instrument serves as the handle. The tangent screw and clamping screw are positioned on the front of the index arm, and operated on a brass quadrant mounted at the pivot point. The sextant has two index shades, in green and red, which are moved by levers. There are no horizon shades. The index glass is non-adjustable and the horizon glass is moved by a screw and a milled key shipped in the upper plate.

Attached to the sextant is a single lens magnifier on a 50mm swivelling arm. The telescope, which is fitted within the body of the instrument, is 51 mm in length with an erect image. The pinhole sight is operated by a lever contained in the instrument for use when the telescope is removed.

The instrument has an inlaid silver scale from -5° to 165° by 30 arcminutes, measuring to 137° (the digits are read from the pivot). The sextant has a silver vernier measuring to 1 arcsecond, with zero at the left.