French 20k gold repeating à toc verge watch Circa 1775

Gold quarter repeating watch
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A very fine and very rare, early French 20K gold pocket watch with quarter repeating à toc Breguet Paris, circa 1775. A polished case by Gustave Mermillod (Mastermark). White enamel dial with Arabic numerals, outer dot minute divisions. Gold beetle and poker hands. Gilt metal dial plate engraved, gilt brass movement, full plate caliber, cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, three-arm brass balance, foliate pierced and engraved continental type balance cock with polished steel endplate, blued steel flat balance spring, silver regulation disc, repeating with two hammers on the case activated by depressing the pendant. Dial and movement signed. Numbered 122 on the pillar plate under the hammer. The case with the Mastermark of Gustave Mermillod and punched with the mark of the Fermiers Generaux, Jean Baptiste Fouache et Domonique Compant, and the date letter L in use between 16 July 1774 and 15 July 1775.

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Diameter: 47 mm
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Signed: Breguet Paris
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This watch was certainly one of the earliest made by Breguet after he went into business in 1775. As the records did not begin until 1787 it was therefore not recorded at the time, but was entered into stock as number 122 in 1791. Breguet gives no information relating to its manufacture, date of sale, nor the price and name of the buyer, which was not uncommon in the first stock book. The Arabic numerals are identical to those used by Jean-Antoine Lepine from about 1770, and the signature is typical of Breguet’s work prior to the revolution. The case is stamped with the mark of Gustave Mermillod, who is recorded as the first case maker working for Breguet.