French silver pocket watch with wandering hours Circa 1820

Silver verge pocket watch by Mathieu à Rouen
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An extremely rare and complicated French pocket watch with wandering hour, Breguet type, circa 1820.
Silver case of very good quality with maker’s mark TF, French silver hallmarks, case number 6619/6620, and signed and numbered dome. Signed enamel dial decorated with gold vines; the upper part with an aperture for the rotating wandering hour display, showing the hour and simultaneously on the upper scale the minute and on the lower scale the quarter hour segment; and the fire-gilt rotating ring is engraved with various animals/hunting motifs. Full plate gilt-finished movement, engraved and pierced balance cock, plain three-arm balance, and verge escapement. This watch is an absolute rarity.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Weight: 136 g
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Signed: Mathieu à Rouen
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The first watches with wandering hours were made in England around 1690. They were mostly made to order for the king or the high nobility. Breguet then produced a ‘more modern version of this complication around 1820.
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Mathieu, French watchmaker in Rouen
Unfortunately, little is known about this watchmaker. His first name is also unknown. However, several French clocks signed Mathieu à Rouen, so it must have been known. An early automatic pocket watch with Virgule or comma escapement from 1778 was auctioned at Antiquorum on October 21, 1995, signed Duval & Mathieu à Rouen. Duval worked in Fréville, a small village near Rouen, from a long line of watchmakers in and around Rouen. During the revolutionary period, VI (1798), he made a very important chronometer with iron grid compensation, extra-large seconds balance wheel and Pierre Le RoyInhibition. The Mathieu mentioned here may have been related to the later Mathieu.