French gold repeating à toc watch with à tact option Circa 1762

Gold quarter repeating verge watch
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A very fine French, 20K gold quarter repeating à toc pocket watch with à tact option, circa 1762.  A Louis XV case, by master case maker Xavier Gide, back decorated with applied varicoloured harvest trophies against sunburst, engine-turning, bezels chased and decorated with wavy lines. White enamel dial, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track with five-minute Arabic numerals, winding aperture at 2 o’clock. Gold Louis XV hands.

A frosted gilt full plate movement with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement with micrometric potence adjustment, steel balance with flat balance spring, continental cock, repeating on gold blocks fixed to the band activated by depressing the pendant, à tact option via gold pin protruding from the bezel at 8 o’clock. Dial and movement signed case punched with dated letter and maître Jean-Jacques Prevost marks (Oct 1, 1762-Oct 1, 1768).
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Diameter: 44 mm
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Signed: J. Baptiste Dutertre  Paris
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Jean-Baptiste (II) Dutertre (1715-1772) Came from a well-established family of watchmakers. His father, also named Jean-Baptiste, was one of the first to experiment with double pendulum clocks. Jean-Baptiste (II) became a master in 1735 and took over his father’s workshop on Quai des Orfèvres. In 1742 presented to the Académie Royale des Sciences an interesting clock and equation watch. He had a nephew of the same name who was also a watchmaker.