Swiss 18K gold lever hunting cased lever watch Circa 1870

Gold watch with double train centre seconds
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A very fine Swiss 18 Carat gold hunting cased lever pocket watch with two train independent centre seconds, return to zero and 1/5th second diablotine, circa 1870. Engine-turned and polished case, reeded band. Hinged gold cuvette. White enamel dial, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, outermost seconds divided into fifths, subsidiary fifth second jumping diablotine and blued steel Breguet hands.

Nickel movement, 28 jewels, most in screwed gold chatons, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, Breguet balance spring, tandem winding, independent seconds activated by a push piece in the band. Dial and cuvette signed, case and movement numbered.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Signed: Edouard Perregaux Locle
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Edouard Perregaux, 1819-1878, won the 8th prize at the Neuchâtel Observatory in 1875 with a pocket chronometer. In 1876 at Neuchâtel his company won a new prize for makers submitting at least a dozen pocket chronometers having the best meantime. In that contest, they also won fourth and sixth prizes for chronometers with lever escapements. They won 1st prize (with five others) in the International Chronometer Contest held at the Geneva Observatory in 1876 at the Centenary of the Société des Arts. In 1877 the firm won second and third prizes at Neuchâtel in Category C, pocket chronometers with lever escapements.
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The feature known as a diablotine is a small subsidiary dial on a chronograph or independent centre seconds pocket watch, the hand of which moves in a jumping manner at intervals of 1/4 or 1/5th of a second. The term literally means ‘little devil’. The diablotine is halted when the chronograph or centre seconds is stopped and the fractions of a second can be read.