Swiss gold lever with center seconds and diablotine Circa 1870

Gold important full hunter by Charles E. Jacot
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An important Swiss 18 carat gold hunting cased key wound pocket watch with Jacot’s patented two train independent center seconds and a diablotine, circa 1870. The rhodium plated movement with a counterpoised straight line lever escapement, 28 jewels, two trains, isochronal vibrations, the lever fork on a bar with counterpoised ends and banking in a slot, a cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring and an index regulator, the independent seconds and ¼th of a second diablotine are activated by a pushpiece in the band. White enamel dial with Roman hours, outer minute divisions, Arabic five minute numerals, an outermost fifth of a second track, sunk subsidiary jumping ¼th of a second diablotine and gold moon hands with blued steel tips. Dial signed, case and movement with matching numbers. Comes with the original key.
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Diameter: 57 mm
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Weight: 153 g
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Signed: Chas. E. Jacot‘s Patent
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Charles E. Jacot, 1817-1897, worked in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, Baltimore and New York. He was a prolific inventor and innovator, especially of escapement work. At the age of 19, he visited his cousin, the son of Abraham Perrelet, in Le Locle and became involved with watchmaking.

In 1837, he went to New York City, where he stayed for 20 years. Jacot invented a modification of the duplex escapement with a jumping seconds hand, known as the Jacot duplex, used extensively in watches made for the Chinese market. While in America, he registered 12 American patents for perfecting the construction of watches.

The stopwatch feature on the present watch was patented on June 8th, 1858, by which time Jacot had already returned to Switzerland. There he founded the Jacot & Salzmann firm in La Chaux-de-Fonds. By the 1870s his firm was called Charles E. Jac.
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The feature known as a diablotine is a small subsidiary dial on a chronograph or independent center seconds pocket watch, the hand of which moves in a jumping manner at intervals of 1/4th or 1/5th of a second. The term literally means ‘little devil’. The diablotine is halted when the chronograph or center seconds is stopped and the fractions of a second can be read.