Fine gold English minute repeating lever watch Circa 1903

Fine gold minute repeating lever watch
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A fine gold English open-faced minute repeating lever watch, circa 1903, gilded three-quarter plate movement, ratchet tooth lever escapement, bimetallic compensation balance, polished steel hammers repeating on coiled gongs, signed Dent Watchmaker to Her Late Majesty, 34 Cockspur Street, London.
Gold dial with an engine-turned centre, white enamel chapter ring with radial Arabic numerals and outer minute ring with a gilded ring between, blued steel spade hands, subsidiary seconds, signed Dent, 34 Cockspur Street, London,
Plain gold case, the back centred with a monogram, engraved to the inside back Albert Niclausse, hallmarked London 1903 and further stamped with French Owl import mark used from 1893, with maker’s mark RN in rectangular cameo for Robert Benson North.
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Diameter: 57 mm
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Signed: Dent Watchmaker to Her Late Majesty, 34 Cockspur Street, London
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The very fine quality movement of this watch was supplied to Dent by Nicole, Nielsen and Co., who, like Hector Golay (see lot 77), produced some of the finest complication English movements of the latter part of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Relatively few watches are signed by Nicole, Nielsen and Co., the firm more usually supplying their movements to prominent makers such as Dent and Frodsham. The superb dial has a sophisticated design, combining a gold engine-turned centre with a white enamel chapter ring; whilst distinctly English in flavour, it can perhaps be seen as an Anglicisation of early 19th-century dial designs made popular by A-L. Bregu

Dent and Co was founded by Edward John Dent (1790-1853). Edward was employed by the Vulliamys and the Barrauds before going into partnership with John Roger Arnold in 1830. In 1840 Edward set up his own company and, a year before his death, he won the contract for creating the Great Clock for Parliament’s clock tower (now known as the Elizabeth tower) and popularly referred to as “Big Ben”. He was succeeded by his step-sons Frederick and Richard who assumed his name. In both the 19th and 20th centuries, the firm supplied marine chronometers and watches to the Royal Navy and also received Royal Warrants.