Rare French 18K gold montre de souscription Circa 1805

Open faced pocket watch by Breguet
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A rare French 18 carat gold one-handed montre de souscription pocket watch with cylinder escapement, circa 1805. Gilt movement of typical three bridge calibre, wound through the centre of the going barrel, hanging steel cylinder escapement with plain three-arm brass balance, flat spring, parachute suspension, compensation curb, signed.
White enamel dial with secret signature at 12 o’clock, dial maker’s signature Borel/28 on the reverse, Arabic chapters and a single blued steel hand within a fully hallmarked plain case, numbered and with a circular pivoted bow.
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Diameter: 61 mm
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Weight: 148 g
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Signed: Breguet et fils
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Montre à souscription. This type of pocket watch was launched in 1796 by Abraham-Louis Breguet. The idea was to manufacture watches on pre-order (souscription = subscription = pre-order) combined with a down payment in small series of up to 20 pieces. The manufacturing costs should thereby be reduced. The clocks were structurally simplified, for example, there was a model with a pointer and only four gears. The different models cost between 600 and 1000 French Francs. Despite this low price, they were high quality, robust and relatively accurate. They were a little big and had an asymmetrical movement in accordance with the Lépine calibre with a large, central, barrel, ruby cylinder escapement, shock protection and temperature compensation on the coil spring. Breguet made about 1,500 souscriptions.
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Forgeries of A.L. Breguet watches. Breguet was the best and the most renowned watchmaker of his time. He was also a most sought-after victim of counterfeiting, which made him create a secret signature to distinguish his authentic works from the forgeries. A large number of counterfeit watches with Breguet’s forged signature were produced during his lifetime and even after his death. Most of these watches were of poor quality or not even of a type ever produced by Breguet. Fakes often appear to be of genuine Breguet origin, but to the eyes of a connoisseur, the quality and technical details make the forgery glaringly obvious. However, this is an exceptionally rare watch of very high quality even if it was not made by Breguet.