Swiss gold chronometer made for the American market Circa 1860

Gold chronometer with pivoted detent
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A very fine and rare, large Swiss, 18K gold, hunting cased pocket chronometer with pivoted detent, circa 1860. Gold wheel-train and interesting presentation inscription.
Made for the American market. Engine-turned covers with polished borders, the interior of the front cover with an engraved inscription, reeded band. Hinged gold cuvette with engine-turned border. White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, large subsidiary seconds. Gold spade hands with blued steel tips. A nickel-silver movement, bridge calibre, jewelled to the centre, gold wheel-train, chronometer escapement with pivoted detent, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator. Dial, case and cuvette signed.
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Diameter: 60 mm
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Signed: James Nardin  Locle
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The case is slightly damaged.
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The inscription engraved inside the front cover of the present watch reads Testimonial, Presented to Captain John Smith of the propeller Daniel S. Miller, for rescuing the passengers at the burning of the Steamboat Isaac Newton, Dec. 5th, 1863. Committee: J.L. Douglass; David Quackenbush; C.J. Sprague; W.C. Prime; J.J. Ryan; R.A. Reading; Daniel Drew. The burning of the steamboat “Isaac Newton” was an event that caused much consternation. An account of it was given in the “Harper’s Weekly” of December 19, 1863.
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James Nardin (James Nardin-Perret) was born in 1814, he was the first cousin of Ulysse Nardin. He worked in the Chaux de Fonds under the name of James Nardin-Perret, Perret being his wife’s name. He was granted a U.S. patent (No. 93,735) in 1869 for a self-winding watch and deposited a marine chronometer at the Neuchatel Observatory in 1873 and the company won a Gold Medal for horology at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1878. His son also called James Nardin, continued the business after his father’s death in 1885.