French gold Montre Médaillon à Tact watch Circa 1815

Gold cylinder watch with pearls
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A fine 18K gold French, enamel and pearl-set montre médaillon à tact, circa 1815. Montre Médaillon à Tact by Breguet, sold to Louvrazoff on September 9, 1815, for 1700 Francs. Both covers overlaid with translucent royal blue enamel, the front cover with eccentric ellipse pattern engine turning, finely reeded bezel edges, revolving back cover with sunburst effect engine turning, arrow à tact hand, cream enamel and gold paillon decorated band set with 11 pearl touch pieces, the elongated pearl-set pendant with loose bow forming the 12th. Detachable gold cuvette engraved Breguet with apertures for the dial, winding, hand setting and the regulator.

Silver, small dial, eccentric, mounted on the barrel bridge, radial Roman numerals and outer dot minute markers, engine-turned centre. Blued steel Breguet hands. Gilt brass movement, souscription calibre with centre barrel wound only from the front, five-wheel 45-hour going train, overhanging ruby cylinder escapement, three-arm gold balance with pare-chute on the top pivot, flat blued steel balance spring, blued steel regulation arm. Movement and cuvette signed and numbered, case numbered.
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Diameter: 40 mm
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Signed: Breguet
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The present watch was no. 104 in the collection of Sir David Salomons. It was lent by Madame Henry Brown, the wife of the then owner of the House of Breguet, for the exhibition in Paris, at the Palais Galliera in October 1923, on the centenary of the death of Abraham Louis Breguet. Breguet classified his souscription watches as petite, moyenne and grande. Of about 915 souscription type watches that Breguet made, only about 35 Petites are known to exist. They were the most expensive, averaging about SF 1,700. Breguet introduced them in the spring of 1799, the first one being sold to Madame Betancourt, the wife of his most trusted friend.