Swiss 18k gold repeater with split-seconds chronograph Circa 1892

Gold open faced lever pocket watch
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A very fine and rare, small Swiss, minute repeating 18K gold pocket watch with split-seconds chronograph, circa 1892. Made for Tiffany & Co., New York and given by Cornelius Vanderbilt II to his son Cornelius Vanderbilt III, July 1893. Accompanied by the Extract from the Archives. The back cover with engraved monogram CV, the interior inscribed Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. from his father, July 1893, bolt at 11 to lock the chronograph. Hinged gold cuvette.
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White enamel dial with narrow radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and concentric fifths of a second division, Arabic five minute/seconds numerals, subsidiary seconds. Blued steel spade hands. A rhodium-plated movement, Geneva striping decoration, 28 jewels, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band. Dial, case and movement signed Tiffany & Co., New York.
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Diameter: 44 mm
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Signed: Patek Philippe & Co.  Geneva
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Cornelius Vanderbilt III (1873-1942) Was a distinguished American military officer, inventor, engineer, and yachtsman, and a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family. Called Neily by his close friends, he was the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt and the son of Alice Claypoole Gwynne and Cornelius Vanderbilt II. Born in New York City, he was educated by private tutors at St. Pauls School in Concord, New Hampshire before attending Yale University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1895. Against his father’s wishes, in a disagreement that actually led to physical blows, in August of 1896 he married Grace Graham Wilson. Remaining at Yale until 1899, he earned a Bachelor of Philosophy degree and, having a great deal of interest in the mechanical and engineering aspects of his family’s railroad business, he also earned a degree in mechanical engineering. Neily Vanderbilt was an inveterate tinkerer with all things mechanical and during his lifetime he patented more than thirty inventions for improving locomotives and freight cars, including several which brought him a significant royalty income.