Swiss dress watch with gold chain, original box and certificate Circa 1890

Gold open faced pocket watch by Humbert-Ramuz & Co.
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An elegant Swiss gentleman’s dress watch with gold watch chain, original box and certificate, circa 1890.
Engine-turned 18-carat gold case with cartouche. Engraved signed gold dome. Signed white enamel dial, with radial Roman numerals, outer minutes track with Arabic five minutes numerals, subsidiary dial for the seconds, and gold spade hands. Bridge movement, rhodium-plated, stripe-decorated, gold screw compensation balance.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Weight: 85 g
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Signed: Humbert-Ramuz & Co., Chaux de Fonds
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Humbert-Ramuz & Co.
Humbert-Ramuz & Co. was established in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1842. It specialized in making ebauches for other companies exemplified, for instance, by a watch in La Chaux-de-Fonds Museum made for Auguste Vuilleis (Inv 1217). On rare occasions, when a watch was exceptional or made for an exposition, the company would market it under its name. The Science Museum in London, for instance, has a Humbert-Ramuz watch with an unusual winding system (Inv. 1920-541).
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Ébauche (loanword from French, meaning blank, outline or sketch) is a term used in art to denote the first preliminary underpainting or quick sketch in oils for an oil painting. Horology, clockmaking and watchmaking appropriated the term ébauche to refer to an incomplete or unassembled watch movement and its associated components. The French term is regularly used by English-speaking artists and art historians, as well as horologists and hobbyists.