Swiss 18 Carat pink gold hunting cased pocket watch Circa 1880

Gold precision pocket watch by Auguste Saltzman
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A small, Swiss pink gold hunting cased pocket watch, circa 1880.
Rhodium plated movement with going barrel, gold screwed chatons (setting), straight line equilibrated lever escapement, compensated balance with gold and platinum poising screws, and blued steel hairspring with terminal curve. 18 Carat pink gold, à goutte, case. Enamel dial with Roman radial hours, outer minutes track with Arabic five minutes numerals, subsidiary dial for the seconds, and Breguet, hands. Dial, case and movement signed.
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Diameter: 34.4 mm
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Signed: Auguste Saltzmann
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Auguste Saltzman
The family of Auguste Napoleon Saltzman, as was his full name, came from Les Bois in the Canton of Bern. Saltzman was born there on October 11, 1810; when he was about 10, his parents Auguste and Maria Anna Saltzman, Governor, emigrated to Carthage, New York. However, young Auguste was sent back to Switzerland to do an apprenticeship as a watchmaker seven years later.
In 1840, he was back in the US to open a watch and clock shop on State Street in Carthage; in 1845, the “A.N. Saltzman & Co.” moved to 10 Maiden Lane, New York. On June 16, 1855, the premises in Maiden Lane were destroyed in a giant explosion that occurred at fireworks manufacturers Demkins & Robins in the same building. Saltzman’s nephew and a man named Eugen T. Preudhomme died in the explosion, and the total damages came to about $50,000 – of which only $10,000 were covered by insurance. As business was good, however, the losses were soon recouped.
In 1857 Saltzman went into partnership with the designer and inventor Charles Ed. Jacot in La Chaux de Fonds; they applied for several patents for the company “A. Saltzmann, Jacot & Co.” in New York. The two partners presumably continued to sign their work individually.
In 1870, the company “Saltzmann & Vuille” in Plainfield, New Jersey, was founded. In 1884 Saltzman put his home in Plainfield up for sale or rent – 12 rooms, ready furnished, in a prime location. He left America around 1885 and moved to Paris, where he lived for the rest of his life. The date of his death is not known.