Swiss gold duplex watch made for the Russian market Circa 1840

Gold duplex watch with centre seconds
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An extremely fine, rare and unusual Swiss 18 Carat gold and enamel open faced duplex pocket watch with centre seconds made for the Russian market, circa 1840. The bezels, pendant and bow are decorated with gold flowers and foliage and green champlevé enamel, on the back a polychrome enamel view of an alpine lake with opalescent sunset sky, the border finely decorated with translucent and opaque enamel birds and foliage on a polished gold ground. Glazed gilt rimmed cuvette.
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White enamel dial with narrow radial Roman numerals, outer minutes and seconds divisions, Arabic quarter hour numerals and blued steel pierced Chinese hands. A mirror polished steel movement, Chinese calibre, standing barrel, eight jewels, five spoke wheels, duplex escapement, bimetallic compensation balance with blued steel wedge shaped weights, flat balance spring, index regulator.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Signed: No name
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The former property of a Swiss Collector.
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The decoration of the case of the present watch is highly unusual and incorporates a mixture of design elements found in watches made for the Chinese, Islamic and Indian markets. The watch movement and dial are those typically found on watches for the Chinese market, the alpine scene decorating the case is typical for the Islamic market and the surrounding decoration is Indian/Asian in decoration. It is likely that the present watch was made for the Russian market because of this hybrid decoration. This type of decoration is very often seen in watches destined for the Russian market. Several examples are in the collection of the Kremlin Museum.