French 20k gold jumping hour à toc repeater Circa 1800-1810

Rare gold à toc quarter repeating cylinder watch by Breguet
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A very rare French 20 carat gold à toc quarter repeating watch with jumping hour hand and ruby cylinder escapement, circa 1800-1810. Sold on 29 Thermidor, year and buyer unrecorded, for the sum of 1,600 francs, in the possession of a Monsieur Haute Roche by 1824. Gilt brass movement, new caliber with standing barrel and Maltese Cross stop work, jewelled to the center, overhanging ruby cylinder escapement, plain gold three armed balance with parachute suspension, blued steel flat balance spring with bimetallic temperature compensation curb, repeating with a massive polished steel hammer on a bloc on the case. White enamel dial by Vincent secured by a single screw with Breguet numerals, outer minute divisions, secret signature under 12 o’clock and blued steel Breguet hands. Forme collier case by Gros, engine turned with fluted flat band, loose ring pendant, the back centered with a small blue champlevé enamel monogram. Hinged gold cuvette.  Dial, movement, case and cuvette signed and numbered.
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Diameyter: 56 mm
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Signed: Breguet – Breguet Paris No 1177 ‘montre répétition à ponts’
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Masterpieces from the workshops of Abraham-Louis Breguet
The present watch is an example made by one of the workshops of Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823) and his successors, widely acknowledged for having set the standard by which all fine watchmaking has been judged ever since.
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Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823)
Breguet was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, but it was in Paris that he spent most of his productive life. No aspect of watchmaking escaped his study, and his inventions were as fundamental to horology as they were varied. His career started with a series of breakthroughs: the development of the successful self winding perpétuelle watches, the introduction of the gongs for repeating watches and the first shock protection for balance pivots.
Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie-Antoinette, were early enthusiasts of Breguet’s watchmaking. Each watch from his workshops demonstrated the latest horological improvements in an original movement, mostly fitted with lever or ruby cylinder escapements that he perfected. Breguet took refuge in Switzerland from the perils of the French Revolution. He returned to Paris overflowing with the ideas that produced the Breguet balance spring, his first carriage clock (sold to Bonaparte), the ‘sympathique’ clock and its dependent watch, the tact watch, and finally the tourbillon, patented in 1801.
Breguet became the indispensable watchmaker to the scientific, military, financial and diplomatic elites of the age. His timepieces ruled the courts of Europe. For his most celebrated clients, Breguet designed exceptional timepieces. For Caroline Murat, queen of Naples, he conceived in 1810 the world’s very first wristwatch. Honours saluted his enormous contribution to horology. Appointed to the Board of Longitude and as chronometer-maker to the navy, he entered the Academy of Sciences and received the Legion of Honour from the hands of Louis XVIII.
When he died in 1823, all mourned the architect of the greatest revolution in the science and art of time-keeping.