Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
French Repeating Gold and Enamel Chatelaine Watch, circa 1780
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1780
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- France
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- gold, enamel
- Stock no.
- A10925
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Pieces of Time (A10925)
- Catalogue title (original)
- French Repeating Gold and Enamel Chatelaine Watch (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Pieces of Time (dealer), London (stock number A10925), this is a pocket watch, made in France, 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, enamel. The record is illustrated with 6 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
Dealer description — Pieces of Time
A small late 18 th Century French quarter repeating cylinder in a gold and enamel consular case and chatelaine. Full plate gilt fusee movement with gilt dust ring. Finely pierced and engraved bridge cock, garnet endstone in a polished steel setting. Plain three arm steel balance with blue steel spiral hairspring. Silver regulator dial with blue steel indicator. Polished steel cylinder, large steel, escape wheel. Push pendant quarter repeating striking on two blocks in the case. White enamel dial with Arabic numerals, decorative pierced gold hands. Raised engraved brass edge to the dial signed “Ageron”. Gold and enamel consular case with gold push pendant and stirrup bow. Radially chased back with a circular polychrome enamel centre of floral decoration on a blue ground. Gold and enamel chatelaine. Hinged gilt clip to the buckle, polychrome ovals scene of cherubs on a blue background. Suspended from the buckle are three broad chains, decorated with translucent blue enamel oval shaped cartouches, and four fine pierced chains with diamond shaped cartouches. Central rectangular gold and translucent blue enamel cartouche centred by a small rectangular polychrome enamel scene of a reclining cherub within a border of split pearls. Three broad chains with translucent blue enamel oval shaped cartouches are supported by the cartouche, the centre one for the watch, the others for double sided gold and enamel oval decorations. The two long outer broad chains terminate in a key and a seal set with a plain cornelian both mounted on swivels and decorated with blue and white enamel.
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 repeaterMinute repeater
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