Excellent Swiss gold two-train keyless pocket watch Circa 1904

Gold watch with centre seconds
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An excellent Swiss 18K yellow gold two-train keyless pocket watch with independent dead centre seconds, circa 1904. A polished case, second-hand activating pushbutton at 10 in the band, case back with engraved monogram and a hinged gold cuvette. White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and blued steel spade hands. A  gilt brass movement, 27 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, a flirt mounted on the last pinion of the independent dead seconds train engaging escape wheel pinion allowing one-second jumps, Adrien Philippe’s patented winding system.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: Patek, Philippe & Cie.  Genève
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In 1776, in Geneva, Moise Pouzait invented the independent dead seconds mechanism in which the movement has two trains, one conventional, and the second with a sweep-second hand which can be stopped without stopping the main train. Adrien Philippe’s independent dead seconds mechanism differs radically from the conventional one based on Pouzait’s design. Philippe moved the entire independent train over the centre bridge, allowing more room for the going train and the balance, which is larger, resulting in better timekeeping. There are fewer than two dozen recorded independent dead seconds watches by Patek Philippe, including the very first ones made by Patek and Czapek. This watch incorporates Adrien Philippe’s two patents concerning tandem winding: the first, for a free, or slipping, mainspring, patented on June 16, 1863, in France, and the second, for winding two mainsprings with one crown, Swiss patent No. 1017 of May 23, 1889.