E. Mathey Tissot & Cie. Minute Repeater Stopwatch, c. 1880s

Dealer description — Analog/Shift

Sure, Analog:Shift is a business built around the love of watches — mostly mechanical watches. But, in essence, it’s our love for timepieces and timekeeping in general that are the common themes throughout the items we procure. And that includes the love of clocks in general: pocket watches, travel clocks, and more. After all, in the couple hundred years before the First World War, personal timekeeping was all about the pocket watch, and before that, it was larger clocks that were front and center, horologically. We still believe a good clock — such as a classic travel model from the 1920s or 1930s — has a place in the watch lover’s collection. But what we have here is special: Dating to circa the 1880s, it’s no ordinary pocket watch, but a minute repeater that will audibly chime the time upon activation. A creation of Mathey Tissot, it may be one of the celebrated Swiss watchmaker’s earliest such timepieces, seeing as his business was established in 1886. Housed in a 55mm 14K yellow gold ‘hunter’ case with an exquisite ‘HB’ monogram on the front, a time-setting lever at 4 o’clock, an acrylic crystal, a push-button ‘onion’ crown at 3 o’clock, a minute repeater slider from 1 to 2 o’clock, and a chronograph pusher at 12 o’clock, it features a white enamel dial with painted black ‘Roman’ minute indices and ‘Arabic’ hour indices, an outer 1/5th-seconds track, a blued steel ‘spade’ handset, and a large sub-seconds dial above 6 o’clock. Powered by a hand-wound movement and featuring a jaw-droppingly beautiful ‘89’ monogram on the caseback, this handmade timepiece is not only technically impressive, but truly a work of horological art. If you’re the type who appreciates the craftsmanship, savoir faire, and patience needed to execute such a glorious object, then be sure to reach out to us quickly… This one isn’t going to last long!