Unique Swiss 18k gold Art Deco lever dress watch Circa 1930

Thin gold and enamel open faced lever by Vacheron & Constantin
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A very fine, unique and thin Swiss 18 carat gold and enamel open faced Art Deco keyless lever dress watch, circa 1930. Le Soleil. Rhodium plated movement, 18 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with eight adjustments, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator. Matte silver dial with red Art Deco Arabic numerals, outer minute track and original blued steel serpentine hands. The case back decorated with a foiled cloisonné enamel design of the sun amongst clouds, domed opaque blue enamel winding crown, bezel decorated with foiled translucent blue enamel, pendant, band and bow overlaid with opaque enamel. Dial and movement signed Vacheron & Constantin case punched with Verger Frères mark, case numbered.
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Diameter: 43 mm
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Signed: Vacheron & Constantin Geneva
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Verger Frères two generations of designers and casemakers. The firm was founded by Ferdinand Verger in 1872, Place des Victoires à Paris. Verger had two sons, Georges and Henri. In 1896 the trade mark ‘F.V.’ was registered. Ferdinand Verger bought the firm of Lépine, Place des Victoires, from Roux in 1901 and in 1914 he sold the remaining stock to Louis Leroy but kept the trademark, which he registered again in 1917. Successors of their father in 1911, Georges and Henri settled at 51 rue Sainte Anne under the name of Verger Frères. They were the Paris agent for Vacheron & Constantin. Not only wholesalers but also designers and casemakers, they produced cases for the finest jewelers of the world, including Boucheron, Mauboussin, Ostertag, Tiffany, La Cloche, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Gübelin and even Hauser-Zivy y Cia in Mexico. They employed up to 40 craftsmen in Paris, not only jewelers, to produce cases and to fit the movements, but also watchmakers for adjusting and after sale service of the movements. Some of their models are very original, such as the so-called ‘Bras en l’air’, made with a figure of the Buddha, a snake charmer or a Mandarin, the famous ‘radiateur’, often sold as a purse clasp, the ‘montres à volets’ produced for Ostertag, Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron, Mauboussin, Gübelin and Tiffany and the celebrated ‘Montre Cadenas’ specially designed for Van Cleef & Arpels. The revival of the fashion for dials and cases with painted miniatures on ivory panels count among their great successes. They also were the creators of magnificent clocks with dials in pietra dura and of the outstanding mystery clocks which were the pride of Cartier and Vacheron & Constantin in the 1920’s and 1930’s.