Thin Swiss white gold open faced complicated watch Circa 1925

White gold complicated lever watch by Gübelin
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A thin Swiss 18 carat white gold open faced keyless lever pocket watch with perpetual calendar and moon phases, circa 1925. Rhodium plated bridge movement with Geneva striping decoration, a lever escapement, screw compensation balance and blued balance spring. Silvered dial with applied 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 concentric auxiliary seconds at 6 and baton hands. A plain matted case with polished bezels and bow. Dial signed, case and movement numbered.
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Diameter: 45 mm
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Signed: E. Gübelin
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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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Gübelin AG, a Swiss watch manufacturer. In 1854, Jakob Josef Maurice Breitschmied opened a workshop in Lucerne’s Pfistergasse. One of his apprentices was Eduard Jakob Gübelin. Gübelin fell in love with Bertha Breitschmied, his master’s daughter. In 1886, the two entered into marriage and their son, Eduard Moritz, was born the following year. Eduard Jakob took over his father-in-law’s business in 1899 and continued to work consistently to expand the family business. In 1903, he opened the premises of the new sale in the former Hotel Englischhof. Eduard Moritz married the captain’s daughter, Maria Schriber, in 1912. In 1919, he took over the company’s management from his father and expanded it in 1923 to become a jewellery business with his creations and a gemological laboratory.