Swiss silver lever with quarter-second diablotine Circa 1860

Silver independent centre seconds lever by Jules Emmery
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A very fine and rare Swiss silver open faced two train independent centre seconds lever pocket watch with quarter-second diablotine, circa 1860. Rhodium-plated movement, Geneva Striping and star decoration, two-train, 23 jewels, the escapement pivots with gold jewel caps, counterpoised lateral lever escapement with an elongated fork, cut bimetallic compensation balance with adjustment screws, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator. Hinged silver cuvette. White enamel dial with Roman numerals, outer minute track, outermost seconds track, subsidiary quarter-second diablotine and original blued steel Breguet hands. Polished case, stop-button in the pendant for the centre seconds and diablotine. Dial signed.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: Jules Emmery Sagne
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Jules Emmery was working in La Sagne in the mid-19th century. A watch (possibly this watch) is recorded by Baillie in the Chambers Collection with ‘sweep seconds and ¼ seconds hands’.
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The feature known as a diablotine is a small subsidiary dial on a chronograph or independent centre seconds pocket watch, the hand of which moves in a jumping manner at intervals of 1/4 or 1/5th of a second. The term literally means ‘little devil’. The diablotine is halted when the chronograph or centre seconds is stopped and the fractions of a second can be read.