French 18K gold pocket watch with chronograph Circa 1915

Gold open faced keyless chronograph watch with pulsometer
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A fine French 18 carat yellow gold open faced chronograph pocket watch with pulsometer made by L. Leroy & Cie in Paris, circa 1915. It has a mechanical crown winding movement with a lever escapement, a compensated bimetallic balance wheel, a Breguet balance spring, and a steel inner protective cuvette, signed and numbered. The white enamel dial features Arabic numerals for the hours, a subsidiary 30 minute recorder register at 12 o’clock, a constant subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o’clock, and an integrated outer pulsometer track graduated for 30 pulsations, signed L. Leroy & Cie à Paris.
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The timepiece is housed in a smooth round three body, 18 carat solid yellow gold open faced case with a monogrammed reverse back cover bearing an engraved presentation inscription dated September 1917. It has a delicately fluted caseband, a fluted winding crown with an integrated chronograph monopusher, and a sturdy round suspension bow.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Weight: 118.7 g
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Signed: L. Leroy & Cie à Paris
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Leroy and Cie
The French watchmaking house L Leroy and Cie was renowned from the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century as the specialist in marine precision chronometers and intricate watch complications. Based at the prestigious Boulevard de la Madeleine in Paris, the firm gained immense international fame as the official and elite supplier to the French Navy under the title Horlogers de la Marine. Although the owner purchased the workshops and archives of their long standing competitor Le Roy et Fils in 1845, the brand maintained its unique technical identity under Louis Leroy’s leadership. The firm’s mastery was demonstrated globally at the turn of the century with the creation of the legendary Leroy Dynamic, which stood for decades as the most complicated portable timepiece ever constructed in horological history.