Swiss large Breguet Souscription pocket watch Circa 1802

Open faced Souscription pocket watch by Breguet & fils
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A large Breguet Souscription pocket watch, sold to a friend of Monsieur Strok on 24 Frimaire An 11 (= December 15, 1802) for 600 Francs, with ratchet key and certificate no. 4326
Silver and gold case, engine turned, reeded band, monogrammed, case maker’s punch mark “GM” (Guillaume Mermillod). Enamel white dial, secret signature below 12, one blued hand. Bridge movement, key wind, ruby cylinder escapement, three arm brass balance, blued balance spring with temperature compensation, shock protection-“parachute”.
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Diameter: 61 mm
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Weight: 132 g
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Signed: Breguet & fils, Souscription
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Breguet’s Souscription watches
Usually in silver, with the gold rims being the only decoration, the souscription watches were of a large diameter allowing the enamel dial to be divided so that both hours and minutes could be read from a single hand. The movements had a single plate; the spring barrel mounted in the centre and the wheels elegantly positioned and retained by bridges. The single hand was driven directly off the barrel arbour, eliminating the motion work and the intendant friction, and the ruby cylinder escapement was fitted with a parachute (shock protector) and a compensation curb to assist in correcting temperature errors; features that were the norm for all of Breguet’s first class watches. To further reduce the selling price, Breguet decided to produce these watches in small series (between 12 and 20 examples at a time), with the buyers paying an account of 25% in advance and the balance on completion. Hence the term: de souscription (by subscription). The success of these watches enabled Breguet to reestablish his business, which had understandably been badly affected by the French Revolution and his exile in Switzerland, and finance much of his research into other areas of horology.