Quarter repeating 18 Carat gold Swiss pocket watch Circa 1820

Quarter repeating gold pocket watch with Jacquemart automaton
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Fine and rare quarter repeating 18 Carat yellow gold Swiss pocket watch with a multicoloured gold Jacquemart automaton, Circa 1820.
Three body, empire and engine turned case with a reeled band and polished bezels. Frosted gilt, full plate with cylindrical pillars movement with fusée and chain, verge escapement, plain brass three arm balance with flat balance spring, pierced and engraved continental balance cock with polished steel endplate, silver regulation dial and repeating on gongs activated by depressing the pendant.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Signed: No name
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A Jacquemart (sometimes Jaquemart and also called a quarter-jack) is an automaton, an animated mechanised figure of a person, usually made from wood or metal, which strikes the hours on a bell with a hammer. Jacquemarts are usually part of clocks or clock towers and are often near or at the top of the construction. The figurine is also known as Jack of the Clock or Jack o’Clock.

One of the oldest and best known Jacquemarts is found on the south tower of the Cathedral Church of Notre Dame of Dijon: it was installed by Philippe II of Burgundy in 1383. Other well-known historic jacquemarts are found on top of the Zytglogge tower in Bern, Switzerland and the Moors on the Torre dell’Orlogio di San Marco in Venice, Italy.

The word is originally French but is sometimes used in English as well. The origin of the word is disputed, but one theory relates it to a tool called a ‘jacke’, used by the craftsmen building church towers, the steeplejacks.