Important French 18 Carat gold high precision watch Circa 1825

Gold lever watch of the highest quality
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An important and extremely rare French 18 Carat gold Simple Garde Temps Medaille Excentrique pocket watch, circa 1825. Sold on March 24th, 1825 to Count Tolstoy for 2,400 francs. Bridge movement, key wind, a club tooth lever escapement and gold screw compensation balance. Silver engine turned dial, an off center hour chapter ring with Roman hours, outer minute dots, a regulation scale and gold Breguet hands. The case is made by Tavernier with a spiral guilloché pattern on the back, silver band and special locking mechanism.
Dial signed, case numbered twice.
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Diameter: 40 mm
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Weight: 42 g
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Signed: Breguet
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Garde temps is a term used by Breguet especially to denote his high precision watches and is regarded as a guarantee of the highest quality.
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The father of the famous world literary figure Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy was born in 1794. At the age of 17, he took part in the War of 1812 as aide-de-camp to a distant uncle, Prince Andrei Ivanovich Gorchakov. Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy also took part in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, and in 1814 he was taken prisoner during an adjutant’s ride in France, from which he was only released by the peace treaty of 1815. After the French campaign, tired of military service, he took his leave and went to live with his father in Kazan. When his father died, leaving only debts, he married the rich Princess Wolkonsky and then moved to Jasnaja Poljana, where he was widowed after nine years of happy marriage.