Swiss gold astronomic hunting cased pocket watch Circa 1880

Gold astronomic lever pocket watch
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A fine astronomic Swiss, 18K yellow gold, hunting-cased keyless pocket watch, circa 1880. It has a perpetual calendar, retrograde date, moon phases, and winding disengagement feature when the front cover is closed. A heavy, polished case, gold-rimmed glazed cover over the movement. White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary dials for the months, days of the week and seconds, aperture for the moon phases at 12, retrograde date sector below. It has blued steel spade hands. A rhodium-plated movement, Geneva striping decoration, 19 jewels, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, winding disengaged when the front cover is closed. Case punched MRM.
Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: MRM  Swiss
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The present watch is particularly interesting because it exhibits two rare and sophisticated horological features. The perpetual calendar with retrograde dates is extremely uncommon and was made by a few workshops, including Breguet and Marius LeCoultre. 2005. The watch’s winding is disengaged when the front cover is closed; this is a subtle mechanism activated from the hinge but one which is quite difficult for the watchmaker to incorporate and illustrates the extra planning that went into the design and construction of this watch.
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The case is slightly chipped, and the movement has some Scratches.