Swiss 18K gold minute repeating keyless lever watch Circa 1900

Gold half hunting cased pocket watch 
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A very fine Swiss 18 carat gold half hunting cased minute repeating keyless lever pocket watch, circa 1900. Movement by LeCoultre. A polished case, the hinged and sprung front cover with an aperture, radial blue champlevé enamel Roman hour numerals and an inner minute track, the back cover with an engraved monogram. Hinged gold cuvette. White enamel dial with Roman hours, an outer minute track, subsidiary seconds and blued steel spade hands. Frosted gilt movement with 31 jewels, wolf’s tooth winding, a counterpoised straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with blued steel Breguet balance spring, an index regulator and repeating on gongs activated by a slide in the band.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: Boxell Swiss
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Thomas Boxell was born in 1823 in Brighton, England and died in 1885. He was recorded as a watchmaker and jeweller in Brighton as early as 1845. As a young man, Boxell was apprenticed to a local watchmaker and at the age of 22, he was running his own business as a watchmaker and jeweller at 55/56 Albion Street.

Kelly’s Directory of Sussex published in 1846 lists Thomas Boxell as a watchmaker at 56 Albion Street in Brighton. The 1851 census records him at 1 North Street Quadrant, Queen’s Road. The census return describes Boxell as a 27 year old watch and clockmaker, employing four men. That same year, he opened a second shop in North Street. Kelly’s Post Office Directory of Sussex and Taylor’s Original Brighton & Hove Directory lists Thomas Boxell at 145 North Street, in their lists headed Watch & Clockmakers. Advertisements published in the Brighton Herald in November 1856 announced Boxell’s removal to 40 King’s Road. Melville & Co.’s Directory of Sussex, issued in 1858, gives his full business address as The Brighton Observatory, 40 King’s Road, Brighton. When the census was taken some 25 years later on April 3rd, 1881, Boxell was recorded as a master watchmaker employing 11 hands at 43 King’s Road.