French 18K gold open faced keyless pocket watch Circa 1900

Gold lever pocket watch by A.H. Rodanet
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A French fine 18 carat yellow gold open faced pocket watch, circa 1900. This watch features a movement with a lever escapement. It has a white enamel dial with Roman numerals for the hours arranged radially, an outer track for minutes marked with Arabic numerals every five minutes, a subsidiary dial for seconds, and blued steel pear shaped hands. The gold case is engraved with two initials and is numbered.
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Diameter 48 mm.
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Weight 86.7 g
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Signed: A.H. Rodanet & PPC
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Auguste Hilaire Rodanet, born on June 5, 1837, in Rochefort-sur-Mer, was the son of Julien and Elisabeth Rodanet-Saumon de Sénac, and the uncle of Henri Rodanet. A watchmaker and Patek Philippe dealer, he won a silver medal for a chronometer in 1867. He exhibited his father’s watches in Geneva in 1867 and operated a business in Rochefort at 54 Rue Duvivier, later moving to 36 Rue Vivienne in Paris in 1870. Around 1900, his firm distributed a Maurice Favre-Bulle watch signed A.H. Rodanet and L. Senselme Sce. (Successor).
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He authored L’horlogerie astronomique et civile in 1886 – 87, published in 1903, and in 1890 founded Horlogerie Rodanet de Paris. He served as mayor of Paris’s 2nd arrondissement (1904- 1907), president of the Ecole d’Horlogerie et Mécanique Précision, and of the Chambre syndicale l’Horlogerie de Paris. Rodanet was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1883, became an officer in 1887, and a commander in 1900. In a 1900 exhibition, he sued Emmanuel Lipmann over the LIP trademark.
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He died at 70 on August 26, 1907, at 82 Rue Taitbout and was buried at Père-Lachaise. His company was later managed by Maison Doffe, then Mrs. Sanselme around 1928, who married M. Michel in 1937 .
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His son, Albert, was a lawyer and an Officer of the Legion of Honour.