Swiss gold chronometer for the American market Circa 1860

Gold hunting-cased pocket chronometer by James Nardin
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A very fine, rare, and large Swiss 18-carat gold hunting-cased pocket chronometer made for the American market, circa 1860. Nickel-silver movement, bridge caliber, jeweled to the center, gold wheel train, chronometer escapement with pivoted detent, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator. Gold hinged cuvette with engine-turned border. White enamel dial with narrow Roman numerals, outer minute track, large subsidiary seconds, and original blued steel Breguet hands. Engine-turned case, master mark JN, reeded band. Dial, case and cuvette, and movement signed.
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Diameter: 54 mm
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Signed: James Nardin Locle
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James Nardin, born in 1814, was the first cousin of Ulysse Nardin. He worked in La Chaux-de-Fonds under the name of James Nardin-Perret, Perret being his wife’s name. He was granted a U.S. patent (No. 93,735) in 1869 for a self-winding watch and deposited a marine chronometer at the Neuchatel Observatory in 1873 and the company won a Gold Medal for horology at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1878. His son also called James Nardin, continued the business after his father’s death in 1885.