Pocket watch · Paris
Striking watch
VerifiedThe gold case is engine-turned with a barleycorn pattern. The repeating winding piston is hidden in the pendant.
Technical facts
- Inventory number
- MIH I-128
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Place of production
- Paris
- Dating
- 1810
- Materials and techniques (catalogue wording)
- or, émail, laiton doré
- Dimensions (catalogue)
- dimensions min/max: 51 x 60 mm
- Inscriptions (catalogue)
- B 848 829 (Fond du boîtier); GM (Fond du boîtier); Breguet N° 303 (Cuvette); BREGUET (Cadran); N° 848 Breguet (Signature secrète); 3 Borel 847 (Contre-émail); Breguet N° 848 (Mouvement); BREGUET N° 303 (Carrure du mouvement)
Historical significance
- The gold case is engine-turned with a barleycorn pattern. The repeating winding piston is hidden in the pendant.
- The white enamel dial has painted Arabic numerals for the hours. The hour and minute hands are blued steel. The “secret” signature, engraved on the enamel, appears under the number 12.
- The gilded brass movement is a clock watch with passing strike and hour and quarter repeating. The time is struck on two rectangular-section gongs. The two small levers on the side of the case-middle are for choosing between strike or silence, and between striking the quarters only or both the hours and quarters.
- The movement has a ruby cylinder escapement, whose escape wheel is fitted with trapezoidal teeth, and a simple three-armed balance. The balance cock has two devices often used by Breguet: a “parachute” suspension and a bimetallic temperature-compensation curb.
Photographs
Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.
Sources & references
- Musée international d'horlogerie, online collection record, inv. I-128: https://collection.mih.ch/fr/collection/item/39816/
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.