Swiss gold watch with concealed enamel painting Circa 1890

Watch with minute minute repeater
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An early 18 Carat gold numbered full hunter cased watch with concealed enamel painting and minute repeater, made by Le Coultre in Genève, Switzerland, circa 1890. The numbered full hunter case of this watch was crafted from 18 Carat gold in a waterdrop shape and has a fine enamel painting, portrait of a child, on the cuvette and a monogram on the front lid. The white enamel dial has black Arabic five minute numerals, black Roman numerals, from one to twelve hours, red Arabic numerals, from 13 to 24 hours, a subsidiary seconds dial with black Arabic numerals and pink gold hands. The movement has a precision lever escapement, caliber Le Coultre, a minute repeater and wolf’s toothing.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Weight: 126 g
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Signed: LeCoultre
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LeCoultre
LeCoultre & Cie. The earliest records of the LeCoultre family in Switzerland date from the 16^th century, when Pierre LeCoultre (circa 1530 – 1600), a French Huguenot, fled to Geneva from Lisy-sur-Ourcq, France to escape religious persecution. In 1558, he obtained the status of inhabitant but left the following year to acquire a plot of land in the Vallée de Joux. Over time, a small community formed and in 1612, Pierre LeCoultre’s son built a church there, marking the founding of the village of Le Sentier where the company’s manufacturing is still based today. In 1833, following his invention of the machine to cut watch pinions from steel, Antoine LeCoultre (1803-1881) founded a small watchmaking workshop in Le Sentier where he honed his horological skills to create high-quality timepieces. In 1844, he invented the world’s most precise measuring instrument at the time, the millionomètre and in 1847 he created a keyless system to rewind and set watches.
Four years later, he was awarded a gold medal for his work on timepiece precision and mechanization at the first Universal Exhibition in London. In 1866, at a time when watchmaking skills were divided up among hundreds of small workshops, Antoine and his son, Elie LeCoultre (1842-1917), established the Vallée de Joux’s first full fledged manufacture, LeCoultre & Cie, bundling their employees’ expertise under one roof. Under this setup, they developed the first partially mechanized production processes for complicated movements in 1870. By the same year, the manufacturer employed 500 people and was known as the Grande Maison of the Vallée de Joux. By 1900, it had created over 350 different calibres of which 128 were equipped with chronograph functions and 99 with repeater mechanisms. From 1902 and for the next 30 years, LeCoultre & Cie produced most of the movement blanks for Patek Philippe of Geneva.