Swiss 18 carat gold and enamel Cartier style watch Circa 1920

Gold knife edged lever watch
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An exquisite pocket watch in Cartier’s montre couteau style made by Movado in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland for Oscar Frésard in Lucerne, circa 1920. Crafted from 18 carat gold, the open faced case is extra thin with a white enamel bezel on both sides and violet guilloché enamel on its back. The engine turned dial features a brushed chapter ring with Arabic hour numerals and an outer minute track, a brushed signature cartouche in the upper half, complemented by blued steel spade hands. The movement has a precision lever escapement with screwed chatons.
Dial signed Oscar Frésard Lucerne and movement signed Movado.
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Diameter: 47 mm
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Weight: 51 g
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Signed: Movado
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In 1881, Achille Ditesheim set up a workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. In 1886, his brothers Léopold and Isidore joined the company and the name was changed to L.A. & I. Ditesheim, Fabricants. They started developing wristwatches around 1900.
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In 1905, new premises was built and Movado (always on the move) was registered as the company name. In 1912, Movado launched the reference Polyplan, a tonneau shaped wristwatch, followed in 1926 by the Ermeto pocket/purse watch. In 1924, the first branch was opened in the USA, New York. The company made all kind of calendar watches, mostly with gold cases.
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In 1969, the Movado-Zenith-Mondia Holding Horloger SA was founded. Subsequently, the newly released automatic chronograph watches, caliber El Primero, were signed with either Movado or Zenith. It was remarkably thin with a height of 6.5 mm, a ball bearing rotor and fast oscillating balance wheel with 36.000 A/h. The reference El Primero was available in different case and dial variants. Due to the cooperation with Zenith, the company headquarters were moved to Le Locle in 1971.
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In 1983, Movado joined the Movado Group Inc. and at the end of 2003, it also took over the well known manufacturer Ebel.
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Couteau is the term used by Cartier in their manufacturing records to describe the type of ultra thin watches with knife edged cases, open faced or hunting cased models. These watches, with thicknesses of less than 4 mm for the open faced and less than 5 mm for the hunting cased version, are among the thinnest mechanical watches ever produced.
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For these thin watches from the first half of the 20th century, Cartier used movements from Edmund Jaeger (Jaeger-LeCoultre), who had just invented a movement only 2 mm thick. In the 1920s, Cartier and Jaeger formed a joint venture, the European Watch & Clock Co., whose signature can be found on many Cartier movements. Movements were further sourced from Vacheron & Constantin, who, from 1940, utilized a movement which was only 1.31 mm thick.