Swiss gold hunting cased keyless lever dress watch Circa 1920

Gold chronometer by Paul Ditisheim
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A very fine and rare Swiss 18 carat gold hunting cased keyless chronometer dress watch, circa 1920. Compensateur Guillaume. Rhodium-plated movement, 18 jewels, inscribed Grand Prix Paris 1900, straight-line lever escapement, anibal-brass Guillaume balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with terminal curve, index regulator. Gold hinged cuvette. Double-sunk, white enamel dial with bold Breguet numerals, outer minute track, sunk subsidiary seconds and original blued steel Breguet hands. Solid case, polished. Dial, case and movement signed.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: Paul Ditisheim Fabricant La Chaux-de-Fonds
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Paul Ditisheim (1868-1945) was born on October 28th, 1868, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. He died in Geneva on February 7th, 1945. After early training in Switzerland, he studied in Berlin and Paris, arriving in England in 1891, where he worked as a technician at the Rotherham factory in Coventry. He started his own manufacture at La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1892, specializing in very high precision watches and jewelled watches. Success in both spheres followed rapidly, and he won many honours for adjusted watches, especially at the Neuchâtel and Kew Observatories. He collaborated with Dr Ch. E. Guillaume in the use of both the Guillaume ‘integral’ balance and the Elinvar-type of auto compensating balance spring. He also contributed many papers to scientific and horological journals and was associated with Dr Paul Woog, an oil chemist, in the development of Chronax oils.