Swiss 18K gold repeating keyless automaton watch Circa 1890

Gold full hunter quarter repeater
–
A fine, rare and large Swiss 18 carat gold hunting cased quarter repeating keyless pocket watch with Jacquemarts, The FLower Girl & Minstrel, made by Fabrique Germinal in La Chaux-de-Fonds, circa 1890. The movement with a lever escapement. The front with applied elaborate floral and foliage decoration, polychrome enamelled automaton flower girls on either side, small, central blue guilloché enamel time indication with Roman hours, outer minute divisions, applied decoration in the form of a star and fine hands, subsidiary seconds below. A plain case. Cuvette signed, case and movement numbered.
–
Diameter: 52 mm
–
Signed: Germinal
–
Germinal traces its origins to 1848, when it began as Meyer Frères. By 1915, the company was known as Fabrique Germinal. At this point, it was making and selling all sorts of innovative timepieces, including some of the first wristwatches, ultra flat pocket watches and chronographs. Germinal was known for its speciality timepieces for drivers, aviators, engineers and doctors.