High quality French 20 Carat gold and agate pocket watch Circa 1770

Pocket watch with repeater and Chatelaine
–
A museum quality gold and agate pocket watch with repeater and corresponding gold plated chatelaine with key and seal pendant, made in France, circa 1770. The open faced wafer thin case of this watch was crafted from 20 Carat gold and agate and has the French gold hallmark. The white enamel dial has Arabic 15 minutes – and hour numerals and red gold hands. The very rare caliber movement has a cylinder escapement with repetition of hours and quarter hours à toc.
–
Diameter: 35 mm
–
Signed: No name
–
Pocket watches with stone cases and repeaters are exceptionally rare, especially in the small women’s size.
–
Agate
Agate is a variety of chalcedony, which comes in a wide variety of colours. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in ancient Greece, in assorted jewellery and in the seal stones of Greek warriors, while bead necklaces with pierced and polished agate date back to the 3^rd millennium BCE (“Before the Common (or current) Era”) in the Indus Valley civilisation. The stone was given its name by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and naturalist, who discovered the stone along the shore line of the Dirillo River or Achates in Sicily, sometime between the 4^th and 3^rd centuries BCE.