Rare French gold and silver à tact pocket watch Circa 1806

Gold watch with ruby cylinder escapement
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A very fine and extremely rare French, large, silver and gold Souscription à tact pocket watch with ruby cylinder escapement, circa 1806. A silver, engine-turned Empire, gold bezels, pendant and à tact hand, an engine-turned band with gold touch pieces, the interiors of the covers with engraved presentation inscriptions. Gilt metal dust cover. White enamel dial, by Borel, outer Breguet numerals and inner five-minute track, secret signature below 12. Blued steel pointer hand.

A frosted gilt movement, souscription calibre, central barrel wound from the back, overhanging ruby cylinder escapement, three-arm brass balance, the top pivot with parachute, blued steel flat balance spring, bimetallic temperature compensation curb fitted to the index regulator. Dial, movement and dust cover signed and numbered, case numbered.
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Diameter: 62 mm
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Signed: Breguet  Paris
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Le Prince de Beauveau Père Breguet sold to Mr. Meaux on 5 Frimaire, An 13 (November 26, 1806), for 840 francs, re-sold to Mr. A. Bouchet on April 10, 1821 for 450 francs and re-sold to S.A. le Prince de Beauveau père on August 3, 1821 for 1,040 Francs.

The inscriptions engraved inside the covers of this watch read as follows: Louis de Beauvau, Prince de Craon et du St. Empire, Décédé à Paris, le 10 Juillet, 1868. Donnée à Henri du Potet par la Princesse de Craon, Juin 1869, Souvenir d’Amitie. Literature: The present watch is illustrated in “The Art of Breguet”, George Daniels, 1975, color plate 10. For a note about souscription watches. Charles Juste François Victurnien de Beauvau-Craon, Prince of Beauvau, Spanish Grandee, (1793 – 1864) The Beauvaus are an old and important family, originally from the Anjou region. In 1824, Charles de Beauvau-Craon purchased the château de Sainte-Assise. He participated in the campaigns of the end of the First Empire, and was a Senator during the Second Empire, from 1852 until his death in 1864.