Swiss gold watch with date for the Chinese market Circa 1800

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Kenmerk: FA0228
Diameter: 57 mm

Estimate: € 7.000 - 14.000
Price sold: € 10.500

Gold watch with Pouzait escapement, date and centre seconds
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A fine and very rare Swiss 18 Carat gold, diamond set, dead centre seconds pocket watch with Pouzait escapement and calendar made for the Chinese market, circa 1800. gilt brass full plate with tapered pillars, fusee and chain, slow beat Pouzait lever escapement with large diamond set balance with five curved arms, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator. Polished case with Master mark DFK.
White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions and Arabic 15 minute/seconds numerals, winding aperture at 4 o’clock. Fancy gold hour and minute hands.

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Diameter: 57 mm
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Signed: Attributed to Dubois et Fils, Locle
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Pouzait Escapement During the late 18th century, watchmakers sought to produce watches with dead centre seconds hands, in great favour in scientific circles and on the Chinese market. Pouzait’s effort featured a lever escapement associated with a large seconds-beating balance. His escapement was much appreciated by the Chinese before the invention by Jacot of the so called “Chinese duplex” escapement, enabling the production of dead center-seconds watches. Jean Moïse Pouzait (1743-1793) In 1786 Jean Moïse Pouzait presented the Geneva Society of Arts with a model of his lever escapement. Pouzait, who eleven years earlier had invented the independent seconds mechanism, possibly wanted to make a simpler mechanism for dead seconds. Whatever his motives, he was one of the first to introduce the lever escapement to the Continent.

Signed: Attributed to Dubois et Fils, Locle