Heavy French open faced oignon pocket watch Circa 1700

Oignon watch by Duquesne
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A heavy French one-handed verge pocket watch “Oignon” with alarm, circa 1700.
This watch consist a silver case with open-worked edge decorated with volutes, masks, birds and rabbits and furthermore with medallions and engraved town views and a rear bell. The dial is silver champlevé with central alarm disc. It has a full plate movement, a chain/fusee and a three-arm brass balance.
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Diameter: 59 mm
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Weight: 218 g
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Signed: Duquesne, Paris
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“Oignons” were most popular in France during the last 30 years of the Sun King’s reign; only a few of them were produced later than that. Single-handed oignons without extra functions are always wound through the hand’s pivot where a central steel wheel under the dial transmits the power to another wheel on the worm gear shaft; two-handed oignons are designed with a winding hole in the dial. Presumably there were workshops in France that produced ebauches for oignons, however, as of today no such ebauche has ever surfaced. Oignons have a large gap between the plates which means that the parts of the movement are well visible; the viewer can easily see the individual parts and how they work like in a large-scale model – this was part of the great appeal these watches had. The oignon is robust and useful pocket watches that – in contrast to the previous pocket and pendant watches at the time – shows the time with adequate accuracy.