Swiss gold lever pocket watch with centre seconds Circa 1870

Gold hunting cased pocket watch 
–
A very fine and rare Swiss 18K gold hunting cased pocket watch with Jacot‘s patented two-train independent centre seconds and quarter-second diablotine, circa 1870. Engine-turned case with polished borders, reeded band. Hinged gold cuvette with engine-turned border. White enamel dial, radial Roman numerals, Arabic outer minute track, outermost seconds divided into fifths, subsidiary jumping quarter-second diablotine, gold Breguet hands with blued steel tips.
–
A rhodium-plated movement, 28 jewels, two-train, Isochronal Vibrations, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, the lever fork on a bar with counterpoised ends and banking in a slot, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, independent seconds and 1/4th second diablotine activated by a push-piece in the band. Dial, cuvette and movement signed, case and movement numbered.
–
Diameter: 55 mm
–
Signed: Chas. E. Jacot‘s Patent
–
The case is slightly rusted.
–
Charles E. Jacot, 1817-1897, worked in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, Baltimore and New York. He was a prolific inventor and innovator, especially of escapement work. At the age of 19, he visited his cousin, the son of Abraham Perrelet, in Le Locle and became involved with watchmaking. In 1837, he went to New York City, where he stayed for 20 years. Jacot invented a modification of the duplex escapement with a jumping seconds hand, known as the Jacot duplex, used extensively in watches made for the Chinese market. While in America, he registered 12 American patents for perfecting the construction of watches. The stop-watch feature on the present watch was patented on June 8th, 1858, by which time Jacot had already returned to Switzerland. There he founded the Jacot & Salzmann firm in La Chaux-de-Fonds. By the 1870s his firm was called Charles E. Jac.
–
The feature known as a diablotine is a small subsidiary dial on a chronograph or independent center seconds pocket watch, the hand of which moves in a jumping manner at intervals of 1/4th or 1/5th of a second. The term literally means ‘little devil’. The diablotine is halted when the chronograph or center seconds is stopped and the fractions of a second can be read.