Swiss gold, bloodstone and enamel egg form verge Circa 1820

Rare egg form watch  
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A fine and rare Swiss gold, bloodstone and enamel egg form watch with concealed dial made by Louis Duchêne & Fils, circa 1820. The key wound movement with a verge escapement and chain fusée. The white enamel dial with Breguet numerals, concealed within a hinged bloodstone egg shaped case, with an engraved scroll and floral openwork overlay reading Dieu Toujours Avec Nous (God is always with us) on a white champlevé enamel band, to a suspension loop. Dial signed, movement signed and numbered.
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Diameter: 33 mm
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Height: 52 mm incl. suspension loop
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Signed: Ls Duchêne et Fils
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Bloodstone is a beautiful, mostly dark green stone with red or brown spots that form as a result of impurities in the iron oxide. These spots look like blood splatters, giving the stone its English name.
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The stone is also referred to as a heliotrope, and gets this name from the Greek words helio, meaning ‘sun’, and tropos, meaning ‘toward the sun’. It’s said that the colour is also reminiscent of heliotrope plants that face towards the sun. The solid green colour that encompasses the rest of the stone is brought in as a result of the amphibole or Chlorite minerals found in the green Chalcedony.
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Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica that’s composed of fine intergrowths of moganite and quartz, the minerals that make up most agate stones, too. Because of its varied composition, the green in bloodstone is not always evenly distributed and may have blue or yellow streaks in addition to green.
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It has been a popular gemstone for at least two thousand years.