French silver unique Renaissance style pocket watch Circa 1870

Chatelaine watch in museum condition with original box
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A numbered unique Renaissance style Chatelaine watch in museum condition with original box, made by the Breguet student Gustave Sandoz, Horloger de la Marine Imperiale, in Paris, France circa 1870. This half hunter cased watch was crafted from silver and chatelaine and case were designed in the same extremely magnificent way with mainly leaves and tendrils, the upper part of the chatelaine with a standing lion and the side parts are each equipped with a seal. The white Louis XV enamel dial has black Arabic five minute numerals, Roman hour numerals and Louis XV silver hands. The movement is wound by a rare and special winding and setting mechanism with miniature hinged handles and bars and has a cylinder escapement.
Dial and inner case are signed and the latter is also numbered.
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Diameter: 40 mm
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Length: 14 cm (chatelaine)
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Weight: 114 g
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Signed: Gustave Sandoz, Horloger de la Marine Imperiale Palais Royal 147-148 Paris
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The watch in this quality and condition is a rarity that is only rarely found. Another of these watches with a slightly different design was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2011 and achieved around €4,600.
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Jacques-Gustave Sandoz
Jacques-Gustave Sandoz was born on September 11, 1836 in Paris. His father was Charles Auguste Sandoz (1800-1880) a watchmaker of Swiss descent from the Neuchatel area. At the age of thirteen, Jacques-Gustave began an apprenticeship with the then well-known watchmaker Perusset. Gustave Sandoz then worked in the workshops of Lépine (taken over by Boulay in 1853), Paul Garnier and Breguet before setting up his own shop in Rue de la Monnaie. In 1865, Sandoz moved to the prestigious Palais Royal 147-148, very close to the Boucheron and later Lalique companies. Sandoz was very successful and became one of the best Paris watchmakers of his time and watchmakers of the French Navy, Horloger de la Marine. In 1855 he won the Napoleon III. founded “Grand prix d’honneur de l’Association polytechnique”. In 1889 he was one of the co founders of SEAI (Société d’Encouragement aux Arts et à l’Industrie), later renamed SEMA (Société d’Encouragement aux Métiers d’Art).