Extremely rare Swiss rose gold complicated lever watch Circa 1890

Rose gold hunting cased lever with complications attributed to Marius LeCoultre
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An extremely fine and equally rare Swiss 18 carat rose gold hunting cased keyless lever pocket watch with perpetual calendar, retrograde date, symmetrical double moon phases and gold wheel train, circa 1890. Rhodium-plated movement, striped and spiral decoration, 17 jewels, some in screwed gold chatons, wolf’s tooth winding, escape wheel upper pivot with gold cap, gold wheel train, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, large-diameter cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with overcoil, index regulator. Gold hinged cuvette. White enamel dial with Roman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic five-minute numerals, subsidiary dials for the months, days of the week and seconds, double aperture for the moon phases flanking the 12, retrograde date sector below and original blued steel spade hands. Polished case, correctors for the moon phases and the date in the band. Case numbered.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Signed: No name
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This watch is of extremely high quality 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, among them Breguet and LeCoultre. The maker Marius LeCoultre specialized in pocket watches with retrograde date and perpetual calendar and it is very likely that the maker of this watch was Marius LeCoultre. The symmetrical double moon phase aperture is also a very rare feature requiring a special moon phase disc with four ‘faces’. It is very ingenious to have found space for a moon phase aperture within the confines of the dial whilst still allowing space for the numeral XII.
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Marius LeCoultre was a watchmaker and repairer as well as a dealer in fine watches. This highly reputed firm, founded in 1848, 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.