Technically rare Swiss silver lever with thermometer Circa 1850

Silver open faced Lépine pocket watch
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An early Swiss silver open faced Lépine pocket watch with regulator dial and thermometer, attributed to Houriet and Mairet, circa 1850. Extremely rare calibre with unusual lever escapement with gold lever. White enamel enamel dial according to Mairet’s design, regulator dial with equally sized scales for hours and minutes, subsidiary seconds, Réaumur temperature indication and blued steel hands. The case back engraved, later dedication to the inside.
Dial signed Reaumur.
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Diameter: 46 mm
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Weight: 55 g
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Signed: No name
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The watch was originally part of the Landrock collection and is a real technical rarity. The temperature display in ‘Réaumur’ is a temperature scale set up by the French scientist René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur in 1730. Its zero point is at the freezing point of the water and it indicates the boiling point of the water at normal atmospheric pressure with 80 degrees Réaumur. Sylvain Mairet grew up with his uncle F.I. Favre-Bulle, who was a famous watchmaker of his time. Mairet himself became one of the best watchmakers of Le Locle. From 1831 to 1834 he lived in London, where he became a friend of J.F. Cole. Mairet worked there mainly for B.L. Vulliamy. The watches he created were mostly designed according to his own designs.

Fritz von Osterhausen writes about the dial of this watch: “It is said that the chronometer maker Sylvain Mairet (1805-1890) from Le Locle developed a particularly elegant way of designing a dial with a thermometer scale around 1840. In any case, this dial design is attributed to Mairet, even though no copy signed by him has yet been found. It is a regulator dial as at Jürgensen/ Houriet with independent central circles for hour and minute, a subsidiary seconds at 6 and at 12 a large sectoral thermometer scale. The elegance of this dial is underlined by a very slim bezel. Several Swiss watchmakers have adopted this fine dial design, such as Robert Brandt from La Chaux-de-Fonds or Laederich Frères from St. Imier.