Large French silver, gold and enamel repeater

A very unusual and quite large gold, silver and enamel cased pocket watch, with a quarter/hour repeating cylinder movement.

MOVEMENT : Cylinder movement, incorporating an hour/quarter repeating function which is activated by pushing down the stem. The repeater strikes two gongs, with one chime for the hours and two for the quarters. The repeating function can be disabled by a slide button on the side of the case at 1.

The movement has some scratches and signs of wear, and with a replacement block holding one of the gongs. The watch movement is running well.

The repeating movement usually repeats the correct hours and quarters unless the stem is pushed too hard. The chime strikes clearly when face down (see video), but the hour strike is a little muffled when face up.

DIAL : Silver engine turned dial with blued steel Breguet type hands. Reasonable condition though with rubbing and wear to the engine turning, especially around the centre. The crystal is good, though is a synthetic replacement.

CASE : The large case has an enamelled silver back, with gold rim, frame, bezel, stem and bow. The hinged cuvette is of gilt metal. There is a worn French gold mark on the stem. I believe that this is one of the marks used betweet 1798 and 1809, with the small ‘3’ indicating 18 ct. gold.

The gilt metal cuvette is tarnished but the hinge is fine and it snaps shut correctly.

The hinge to the bezel is ok and the bezel will snap shut. However the back (enamelled) cover does not snap shut (it shouldn’t be pressed too hard in case of cracking the enamel).

The engine turned band around the case is fine. The stem is a little worn and the bow has some scratches.

The enamel back is on silver with gold rims. The enamel appears to be original, with small repairs on the edge at 12, and some chips on the edge at 5 and 7. Otherwise the enamel is in excellent condition and is of hard vitreous enamel rather than late soft non vitreous.

This is a very attractive and unusual watch, that could do with a little work on the repeating mechanism to improve reliability and sound quality.