Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Bordier pocket watch, enamel and rhinestones, circa 1780
- Maker / attribution
- Bordier (brand / maker)
- Date
- c. 1780
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- gold
- Dimensions
- diameter 41.7 mm
- Auction house
- Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
- Lot
- Lot 346-22
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: LOT 22, Geneva,January 3, 2022
- Catalogue title (original)
- Bordier Decorative pocket watch, quarter-repeater; yellow gold, vari-colour gold, enamel and rhinestones (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva (lot Lot 346-22), this is a pocket watch by Bordier, dated c. 1780. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: gold. Recorded dimensions: diameter 41.7 mm. The record is illustrated with 3 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Antiquorum catalogue description
Yellow gold, vari-colour gold and enamel, open-face, key-winding, round-shaped, “Louis XVI” pocket watch, with one horological complication:· Quarter-repeater à toc by one hammer on one bellCase-back with, in the centre, painted on enamel a medallion showing a lady having her hand kissed (if nothing else!) by a young man kneeling before her; bezel set with rhinestones.White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals; yellow gold “Louis XV” hands.Movement 14’’’, full plate, gilded brass, fusee and chain, verge escapement, monometallic balance (probably gilded brass) and blued steel flat hairspring, pierced and engraved gilded continental cock, silver regulator disc; repeater work on the main plate, under the dial.
Lot specifications (Antiquorum)
Movement No.: 18 945; Case No.: unnumbered; Material: yellow gold, vari-colour gold, enamel and rhinestones; Caliber: 14’’’, fusee and chain, verge escapement; Diameter: 41.7 mm.; Weight: 72.6 gr. (approx.); Signature: dial and movement
Inscriptions & marks
dial and movement
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
From 1750 to 1850 the watch became a precision instrument. Mudge's lever escapement, the cylinder escapement, Lépine's thin bar calibre, Breguet's innovations (overcoil, tourbillon, perpétuelle) and the pocket chronometer of Arnold and Earnshaw all date from this period, while verge watches remained common in cheaper production.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Repeating watches
Before electric light, telling the time in the dark was a real problem. Repeating watches strike the time on demand when a slide or push-piece is operated: quarter repeaters sound hours and quarters, minute repeaters hours, quarters and minutes. Edward Barlow and Daniel Quare disputed the invention in London in the 1680s. Early repeaters struck on a bell inside the case; Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced the gong (a coiled steel wire) around 1780, allowing thinner watches.
Repeaters require a separate train with racks, snails and a governor to control the striking speed, and are among the most demanding complications to make and adjust. Swiss makers of the Vallée de Joux specialised in repeating ébauches in the nineteenth century.
What to look for
- A slide on the case band or a push-piece through the pendant.
- Gongs encircling the movement (after c. 1780) or a bell in the case (earlier); pierced case for sound.
- The racks, snails and governor visible under the dial or on the movement.
- Terms such as 'Minutes', 'Quarts' or 'Répétition' on the dial or cuvette.
Dating clues
- Bell-striking quarter repeaters: c. 1690–1800.
- Gong repeaters and dumb repeaters (striking on the case): after c. 1780.
- Minute repeaters became more common after c. 1830 with Vallée de Joux ébauches.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Minute repeater
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