French gold repeater with pin wheel escapement Circa 1805

Gold quarter repeating watch with independent dead centre seconds 
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An extremely fine and equally rare French 18 carat gold open faced three train quarter repeating pocket watch with pin wheel escapement and Pouzait type independent dead centre seconds, circa 1805. Matte gilt movement, calibre à ponts de Lépine, standing barrel for the going train, fixed barrel for the independent seconds train, pin wheel escapement with polished steel escape wheel set with fifteen gold perpendicular pins, polished steel anchor and fork acting on a ruby impulse roller, gold three armed balance with parachute on the top pivot, blued steel flat balance spring, bimetallic temperature compensation curb on the blued steel index regulator, Pouzait type dead centre seconds mechanism, all-or-nothing chain wound repeating mechanism repeating on rectangular section gongs activated by depressing the pendant. Gold hinged cuvette. White enamel dial with Breguet numerals, outer seconds track with gold painted five second divisions and Arabic numerals, original gold Breguet hour and minute hands, blued steel seconds hand. Polished case, reeded band, bolt at 1 for locking the repeating and at 3 for the start/stop of the centre seconds. Dial and cuvette signed.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Signed: Charles Le Roy H.ger de S.A.I. (Son Altesse Impériale) Madame
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Here Le Roy used the pin wheel escapement very rarely found in a watch, along with major horological advances of the day: the Lépine calibre à ponts, Pouzait’s dead centre seconds mechanism and Breguet’s parachute shock absorber and temperature compensation curb. These features, as well as the repeating and the gilt on the dial, suggest the watch was made to impress amechanically minded patron. The movement may have been begun much earlier and, perhaps due to the Revolution, not completed until the early 19th century.
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The pin wheel escapement, invented by Amant in 1741, was improved by Jean-Andre Lepaute. Developed for use in clocks, it derives from Graham’s anchor escapement but instead of teeth, pins project at right angles fromits surface. The pin wheel escapement was relatively easy to make and repair and required only a very small arc. It was extremely accurate in clocks with a half second beat.
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Independent dead centre seconds. In 1776 Moise Pouzait invented the independent dead seconds mechanism in which the movement has two trains, one conventional, and the second with a sweep seconds hand which can be stopped without stopping the main train.