French verge watch with Jacquemart figure automaton Circa 1800

Repeating skeletonized pocket watch by Berthoud
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A fine French quarter repeating pocket watch with a skeletonized Jacquemart figure automaton, circa 1800.
Engine turned 18K gold case, coined band, and signed cuvette. White enamelled numeral ring with Breguet-style radial hours, outer minutes track, and gold-coloured hands. Verge movement, quarter-hour repeater, face with skeletonized figure automaton with a view to the striking mechanism.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Weight: 117 g
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Signed: Berthoud à Paris
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A Jacquemart (sometimes Jaquemart and also called a quarter-jack) is an automaton, an animated, mechanised figure of a person, usually made from wood or metal, which strikes the hours on a bell with a hammer. Jacquemarts are typically part of clocks or clock towers and are often near or at the top of the construction. The figurine is also known as Jack of the Clock or Jack o’Clock.
The word is originally French but is sometimes used in English as well. The origin of the word is disputed, but one theory relates it to a tool called a ‘jacke’, used by the craftsmen building church towers, the steeplejacks.