French 18 carat gold top quality ‘Seconde Morte’ watch Circa 1890

Former aristocratic property pocket watch
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A former aristocratic property this very fine and top quality ‘Seconde Morte’ watch, possibly made by Démarets in Paris, France, circa 1890. The numbered à goutte (waterdrop shaped) case of this watch was crafted from 18 carat gold and has a noble coat of arms on the back lid. The white enamel dial features an outer ring with 5 minute numerals, Roman hour numerals, a subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o’clock and gold hands. The very rare movement is fitted with a winding mechanism in manner of Sylvain Mairet, chronograph, dead beat seconds and a cylinder escapement.
The cuvette is signed.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Weight: 105 g.
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Signed: Démarets à Paris
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The item presented here does not only tells time but also has a chronograph function, allowing the user to measure elapsed time with precision. Such a feature was highly sought after in the late 19^th century and it speaks to the ingenuity and technical prowess of Démarets.
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Seconde morte
The seconde morte, also known as dead beat seconds, is a complication of a mechanical movement in which the second hand moves every second. This is in contrast to the usual ‘running’ of the second hand. This complication is rare and was seen in the years before the quartz revolution, the 1970’s and 1980’s, but actually died a silent death because of the same quartz revolution. The reason for this was that the second hand moves per second in almost the same way as quartz watches, which ultimately also use a frequency of 1Hz. With that, the ‘running’ second hand became the distinction between mechanical watches and quartz watches. Incidentally, that external similarity only applies to the second hand jumping per second, the underlying mechanism of the dead seconds complication is of course of a completely different order.