Montre compliquée

Historical significance

• The gold case has two glazed bezels. The chronograph functions are activated by the button in the winding crown; the pushpiece on the caseband activates the split-seconds mechanism. Charles-Ami Lecoultre Piguet’s work was primarily produced for Wittnauer in the United States, where the movements were finished and cased under the American brand’s own name. Perhaps this explains the later style of the case.
• The white enamel dial has painted Arabic numerals for the hours. There are two small sunk dials: the upper one indicates the minutes, the lower one the jumping seconds (four jumps per second). The hour, minute, chronograph and split-seconds hands are at the centre.
• The movement, which is fitted with a single barrel and a single train, reveals several distinctive features of Ami Lecoultre Piguet’s work. Described in a patent taken out by him in 1886, the “oscillating pinion” chronograph annuls the jump of the hand at the start, an inherent defect in the traditional construction of the chronograph. The continuous minute counter is graduated from 1 to 30. The split-seconds mechanism is under the dial. The jumping seconds hand is stopped and returned to zero at the same time as the chronograph.

Sources & references

1. Musée international d'horlogerie, online collection record, inv. I-528: https://collection.mih.ch/fr/collection/item/35590/

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.