Extremely fine Swiss lever with six complications Circa 1885

Rose gold complicated watch by Le Coultre
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An extremely fine, very rare, large and heavy Swiss 18 carat rose gold hunting cased minute repeating  keyless lever pocket watch with retrograde perpetual calendar and moon phases, made between 1880 and 1885. Frosted gilt movement, 31 jewels, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with terminal curve, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band. Gold hinged cuvette. White enamel dial with Roman numerals, outer minute track with five minute Arabic numerals, retrograde date sector with Arabic numerals in the upper half, below an oval aperture for phases of the moon, days of the week aperture at IX o’clock, month aperture at III o’clock, subsidiary seconds dial and original blued steel double spade hands. Solid, polished case, pusher on the band for advancing the calendar. Movement signed under the hour hammer.
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Diameter: 59 mm
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Signed: LeCoultre & Co Swiss
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This watch has survived in superb condition and is particularly interesting because it exhibits a very rarely found and sophisticated horological feature. The perpetual calendar with retrograde date is extremely uncommon and was made by very few workshops including Breguet and LeCoultre. 
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Marius LeCoultre was a watchmaker and repairer as well as a dealer in fine watches. A highly reputed firm, founded in 1848, that made complicated watches of superior quality. Lecoultre perfected a chronograph with vertical displacement of the engagement wheel. He received an honorable mention at the Geneva ‘concours de chronométrie’ in 1887. He showed complicated and precision watches at the Chicago Universal Exhibition of 1893 and also took part in the National Exhibition in Geneva in 1896.