Swiss gold open faced jumping center seconds watch Circa 1850

Gold cylinder watch with seconde morte
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A Swiss 18 carat gold open faced jumping center seconds, seconde morte, cylinder pocket watch, circa 1850. Bridge movement, two barrels, cylinder escapement, three arm steel ring balance. Engine turned gilt dial, small radial time indication at 6 o’clock with Roman hours and minute divisions, outer minute track with Arabic quarter hours. Plain case. Case numbered.
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Diameter: 60 mm
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Weight: 128 g
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Signed: No name
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The seconde morte, also known as dead beat seconds, is a complication of a mechanical movement in which the second-hand moves every second. This is in contrast to the usual ‘running’ of the second hand. This complication is rare and was seen in the years before the quartz revolution, the 1970s and 1980s, but actually died a silent death because of the same quartz revolution. The reason for this was that the second-hand moves per second in almost the same way as quartz watches, which ultimately also use a frequency of 1Hz. With that, the ‘running’ second hand became the distinction between mechanical watches and quartz watches. Incidentally, that external similarity only applies to the second-hand jumping per second, the underlying mechanism of the dead seconds complication is of course of a completely different order.