Swiss gold repeating lever for the Indian market Circa 1900

Gold, enamel, ruby, pearl and diamond-set lever watch 
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A very fine and rare Swiss heavy 18K gold, enamel, ruby, pearl and diamond-set hunting cased grande and petite sonnerie minute repeating chronograph keyless lever clock watch made for the Indian Market, circa 1900. Retailed by Marcks & Co Ltd, Bombay & Poona. Sold to the Sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, Mahbub Ali Khan who reigned from 1869 to 1911. The chased and engraved band, pendant and bow with oval, stylized leaf decoration, the bezel pearl-set on both sides, the front as well as the back set with diamonds and rubies in an Indian geometric pattern on a dark green guilloché enamel ground. Hinged gold cuvette.

White enamel dial with radial Roman hours, outer Arabic five-minute track, concentric outermost seconds track with 1/5th second divisions, subsidiary seconds and blued steel spade hands. A frosted gilt three-quarter plate movement, two-train with tandem winding, double barrel, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, white metal Breguet balance spring, index regulator, striking the quarters and repeating on gongs via a trip-slide in the band, strike/silent, quarters only/full strike and hand setting levers in the bezel, chronograph button in the band. Dial, case and movement signed.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Signed: Henry Grandjean & Cie Le Locle
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Marcks & Co Ltd was the most prestigious store for luxury goods in India. Its major supplier was Henri Grandjean, who made very high-quality watches. The company specialized in Grande Complication watches, watches with a perpetual calendar, independent seconds with diablotine, chronographs, repeaters, clock watches and tourbillons. Their watch cases were usually highly and ornately decorated, often with enamels, precious and semi-precious stones in the manner that was so appreciated on the Indian market. Henry Grandjean along with Constant Girard (later Girard-Perregaux) was one of the first to enter the South American Market. He was also, along with Ulysse Nardin, one of the first to establish a marine chronometer manufacturing business in Switzerland as well as an initiator of the Neuchâtel Observatory. In 1851, at the first Universal Exposition in London, Grandjean received a First Class medal. His list of medals continues until 1868, the year in which the company won an award for its marine chronometers. In the meantime, they also received at least eight different awards, not including those from the Observatory of Neuchâtel. Henry died in 1879 but it appears that the company continued for the next twenty years until 1899, the year in which Rossel & Fils registered their name as successors (they had most likely run the company during those 20 years). On January 9, 1908, Rossel & Fils transferred the title to Charles-Ferdinand Perret.