Swiss gold clock watch for the Chinese market Circa 1780

Gold, enamel and pearl-set clock watch attributed to Jaquet-Droz
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A fine and rare Swiss 18 carat gold, enamel and pearl-set open faced quarter striking clock watch with centre seconds made for the Chinese Market, circa 1780. Gilt-brass full plate two-train cylinder movement, single-footed cock, diamond endstone, striking on two hammers onto a bell, strike/silence lever on the edge of the dial plate. Gold cuvette. White enamel dial with Roman numerals and gold beetle & poker hands. Consular case, split pearl-set bezels, pendant and bow with champlevé enamel decoration, the back enamel panel with fine gold paillonné decoration on a translucent blue ground.
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Diameter: 55.5 mm
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Signed: No name
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Pierre Jaquet-Droz was born on July 28, 1721, on a small farm (La Ferme de Sur Le Pont) in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, as the son of a farmer who was an occasional clockmaker as well. He studied humanities and philosophy in Basel from 1738 to 1739. He became interested in clockmaking and precision mechanics under the tutelage of older relatives from the Brandt-dit-Grieurin, Sandoz and Robert families. On October 25, 1750, Jaquet-Droz married Marianne Sandoz, the daughter of Civil Lieutenant Abraham Louis Sandoz. Soon after the birth of his two children, Julie in 1751 and Henri-Louis in 1752, at the age of 34, Pierre lost his wife, followed by his daughter in 1755. He never remarried. In 1758, Pierre made the long and difficult journey to Spain, to present his works to King Ferdinand VI. When he returned to La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1759, the sum of money he brought back from Spain enabled him to concentrate on making watches, clocks and automata. Jaquet-Droz worked together with his son and a neighbour’s son, Jean-Frédéric Leschot, whom he had taken in after the death of the boy’s mother and thought of as his adoptive son. From 1773 onwards, Jaquet-Droz and Leschot perfected and marketed increasingly sophisticated automata. Their work culminated with the three humanoid automata: The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician, presented in La Chaux- de-Fonds in 1774. Encouraged by this success, the Jaquet-Droz family took to the road to exhibit their products. From La Chaux- de-Fonds they travelled to Geneva, Paris, London, Holland, Flanders, Spain, Russia and beyond. Pierre decided to set up a workshop in London, under the management of his son, Henri-Louis. Exhausted by his travels, the latter delegated some of his responsibilities to Jean-Frédéric Leschot. Leschot was tasked in particular with overseeing the business relationship with the prominent trading company James Cox in London, whose agents in Canton opened up the Far Eastern market for the Jaquet-Droz Company and for many years represented it in China, India and Japan. They also set up a branch in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. For ten years, the company continued to expand. It sold clocks, automata, watches and singing birds all over the world, primarily in China. In 1784, Jaquet-Droz decided to move to Geneva, Jean-Frédéric Leschot soon joined him and they decided to open the city’s first clockmaking manufacture, simultaneously introducing the production of timepieces featuring complications. In 1788, the success and prosperity of Jaquet Droz & Leschot peaked, but only for a short time. In 1790, drafts made on their principal correspondent in China came back unpaid and their main client in London failed, putting the company in the red. These misfortunes darkened Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s final years. He left Geneva to live in Bienne, Switzerland, where he died in 1790. This in combination with the death of his son Henri-Louis in 1791 at the age of 39, the French Revolution in 1789 and the Napoleonic Wars meant the end of a period of great creativity and prosperity for Jaquet-Droz & Leschot. The Jaquet- Droz brand joined the Swatch Group in 2000. In 2010, the company moved its atelier to La Chaux-de-Fonds.
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Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz was born in 1752 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. He was the son and second child of Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his wife Marianne. At a young age, his father sent him to Nancy, France, to study music, science, mathematics, physics and drawing. Upon his return from Nancy in 1769, Henry-Louis took his place in his father’s workshop, alongside Jean-Frédéric Leschot (1746-1824), a neighbour’s child who had come to live and work with Pierre around 1756. This was the beginning of a close and productive partnership between the three men. When Pierre Jaquet-Droz grew old, the firm was taken over by his son Henry-Louis and Jean-Frédéric Leschot and was called Jaquet- Droz & Leschot. Henri Maillardet was the director of the London branch of the Jaquet-Droz firm that was opened in 1783, although Henri-Louis travelled often to London to look after business. In 184 the Jaquet-Droz company moved to Geneva, the centre of watchmaking. Upon his father’s retirement from the family firm, Henry-Louis naturally replaced him. However, Henry-Louis’ health was poor. He died in November 1791, in Naples, Italy, at the early age of 39. Subsequently, Jean Frédéric Leschot took over the firm.