Thin Swiss 18 carat gold complicated lever pocket watch Circa 1983

Gold complicated watch by Audemars Piguet
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A thin Swiss 18 carat gold 18K open faced keyless lever pocket watch with perpetual calendar, moon phases and lunar calendar, circa 1983. Rhodium plated movement with Geneva striping decoration, 20 jewels, a straight line lever escapement, monometallic balance adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and five positions, self compensating flat balance spring and shock absorber. White enamel dial with Roman hours, an outer minute track, subsidiary dials for the months and four year cycle at 12 o’clock, days of the week at 9, the date at 3, an aperture for the moon phases with a lunar calendar at 6 and blued steel diamond/kite hands. The plain and brushed case with a stepped, curved bezel, brushed band, hinged bow and a cabochon sapphire set winding crown, the back is inscribed Quantieme Perpetuel. Comes with a fitted sleeve and pouch, and a corrector. Dial and movement signed, case signed and numbered.
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Diameter: 47.5 mm
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Signed: Audemars Piguet Swiss
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A traditional perpetual calendar indicates the date, the days of the week and the months of the year. Unlike a standard calendar watch, the perpetual calendar mechanism ingeniously takes into account the months’ unequal lengths of either 28, 30 or 31 days and the intercalary day of February 29th in a leap year without requiring manual adjustment. Assuming the watch is kept running,2018 adjustment is only required once per century for three centuries in a row out of every 400 years. This is because in the Gregorian calendar which is a 400 year cycle, the leap year is omitted three times every 400 years.
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Audemars Piguet & Cie. Jules Louis Audemars, born on March 28th, 1851 and died on October 15th, 1918 and Edward Auguste Piguet, born in 1853 and died in 1919 were two young and ambitious watchmakers who established their workshop in 1875 in their home village Le Brassus, Vallée de Joux, Switzerland. Audemars was in charge of production and technical aspects while Piguet focused on sales and management. Believing in the power of the Vallée de Joux’s network of artisanship and following their firm convictions, they set on crafting unique complicated mechanisms by hand at a time when serial production was looming with the rise of industrialisation.

While the two entrepreneurs first produced complicated movements that were sold to Geneva-based firms, they soon orchestrated the production of complete watches in the region by coordinating the activities of a variety of craftsmen, buying in blanks, cases, dials, bracelets and sending out pieces for gem-setting and decorating. The miniaturisation, design, assembly and setting of movements were then done at Audemars Piguet’s workbenches. The company ledgers demonstrate that nearly 80% of the 1600 watches produced by Audemars Piguet between 1882 and 1892 included at least one, if not several complications. Refined chiming, chronograph and astronomical watches, assembled and finished by hand, have remained the beating heart of Audemars Piguet ever since.