Early French gold plated oignon pocket watch Circa 1710

Gold plated oignon watch
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An early French oignon pocket watch with rare English movement construction made by Nicolas Duquesne in Paris, France, circa 1710. The open faced gold plated relief case of this watch has an engraved back. The engraved dial has white cartouches with blue Roman hour and black Arabic five minute numerals, and later moon hands. The decorated movement has a rare English design and a verge movement.
Movement signed.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Weight: 170 g
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Signed: Duquesne Paris
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Duquesne
Nicolas Duquesne (died 1733) was first mentioned in Paris in the Abbaye Saint-Germain des Prés in 1713 and in the Rue de la Comédie Française in 1715. He married first in 1716 and a second time in 1728. He was later listed in the Rue des Grands Augustins and in the Rue Dauphine.
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Oignon
The oignon watch was most popular in France during the last 30 years of the Sun King’s reign, only a few were produced later. Single handed oignons without extra functions are always wound through the hand’s pivot where a central steel wheel under the dial transmits the power to another wheel on the worm gear shaft. Two handed oignons are designed with a winding hole in the dial. Presumably there were workshops in France that produced ebauches for oignons, however, to this day no such ebauche has ever surfaced. Oignon watches have a large gap between the plates which means that the parts of the movement are well visible, the viewer can easily see the individual parts and how they work like in a large scale model, this was part of the great appeal these watches had. The oignons are robust and useful pocket watches that, in contrast to the previous pocket and pendant watches at the time, shows the time with adequate accuracy.