Swiss 18 carat gold hunter case pocket watch Circa 1870

Important highly complicated pocket watch
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An important, highly complicated gold hunter cased pocket watch in a wooden numbered box, made by Louis Audemars & Company in Le Brassus, Switzerland, circa 1870. This watch features a 18 carat gold à goutte case with the Louis Audemars hallmark and a numbered cuvette. The enamel dial features a an outer independent jumping seconds track with Arabic numerals for 5 seconds division, a moon phase and age indicator at 6 o’clock, three dial for the perpetual calendar and gold hands. The numbered movement is equipped with a highly sophisticated, high quality precision lever escapement and eight complications: a perpetual calendar, moon phase and moon age, seconde morte, and a minute repeater.
The box and cuvette are signed and the box, case and movement bear matching numbers.
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Diameter: 56 mm
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Weight: 170 g
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Signed: LS Audemars Brassus
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The item presented here comes in a high quality wooden box with copper inlay, signed Louis Audemars No. 11174. According to the previous owner’s records, this watch was made in 1870 and sold in 1873 at the Vienna World’s Fair to the well known chronometer maker Bröcking in Hamburg. The sister watch, no. 11170, is illustrated in H. Zantke’s book “Audemars”. The combination of a perpetual calendar, minute repeater and independent jumping seconds – instead of the usual chronograph – is much rarer and therefore more sought after, as it requires a second barrel. In this extremely fine watch, both barrels are wound simultaneously by the tandem winding mechanism.