Swiss 18K gold captain’s watch with two time zones Circa 1860

Gold center seconds lever with seconde morte
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A Swiss 18 carat gold open faced captain’s watch with two time zones, stoppable jumping seconds and center seconds made by Houriet & Cie in Le Locle, circa 1860. The case has a reeded band, plain bezels, pendant and bow, and the back is richly engraved with flowers, animals and hunting gear, it features a further signed gold cuvette and a slide to stop the jumping seconds. White enamel face featuring two small dials with radial Roman hours, an outer minute track and Louis XV hands, outermost center seconds divisions with Arabic five minute numerals. Very fine frosted gilt bridge movement with 31 jewels, two barrels, a side lever escapement, gold screw compensation balance, florally engraved balance cock, blued screws and visible rubies.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Weight: 123 g
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Signed: Houriet & Cie Le Locle
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Overall, this beautiful watch is very well preserved. A small chip at 35.
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Stoppable jumping seconds
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 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 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.