Swiss gold plated digital jumping hour pocket watch Circa 1905

Gold plated keyless lever digital watch by Courvoisier Frères
–
A fine, technically interesting and possibly rare Swiss gold plated open faced digital jumping hour keyless lever pocket watch with a retrograde flyback minute hand, circa 1905. An engine turned case back with a vacant cartouche, the front bezel polished. Hinged metal cuvette engraved in Art Nouveau style. Silver plated dial, the upper half with retrograde Arabic minute sector, an aperture for the jumping hours below 12 o’clock and subsidiary seconds at six o’clock. Rhodium plated movement, Geneva striping decoration, 15 jewels, straight line lever escapement, notched bi metallic compensation balance, blued steel flat balance spring and an index regulator. The cuvette engraved Modernista Patent and the movement with a patent number.
–
Diameter: 50 mm
–
Weight: 90 g
–
Signed: Courvoisier Frères La Chaux-de-Fonds
–
Courvoisier Frères. The brothers Henri-Louis Courvoisier and Philippe-Auguste Courvoisier traded under the name “Courvoisier Frères” from 1842. Specializing in high-quality clocks, they were commissioned by the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the same year to build a clock for the Prussian King Frederick William IV. This is said to have been the thinnest watch in the world at the time. Historically, Courvoisier Frères was a successor of Courvoisier et Cie. In 1852 the company underwent a major restructuring and Henri-Louis and Philippe-Auguste Courvoisier left the company. The new company consisted of three sons of Henri-Louis, Henri-Édouard Courvoisier (1823-1882), Louis-Philippe Courvoisier (1825-1885) and Jules-Ferdinand Courvoisier (1830-1905). In 1862 the firm received an Honorable Mention at the London Exposition and a silver medal at the Paris Exposition of 1876. The firm was also listed as Jules & Louis Courvoisier, Ernest Francillon, Léon Gallet and Constant Girard-Gallet. The brothers founded the Inter cantonal Union of Jurassic Industries. In 1882 the name changed to Courvoisier & Fils when Henri-Edouard Courvoisier died and two of Louis Philippe Courvoisier’s sons, Émile and Louis-Henri, joined the partnership. In 1883 the name was changed to Courvoisier & Cie. Two years later, Louis Philippe Courvoisier died and the company was renamed Courvoisier Frères. During this time Georges Gallet (1865-1946 ) worked partly for Gallet & Cie and for Courvoisier Frères, his brother’s daughter Henriette Gallet was married to Émile Courvoisier and Berthe Courvoisier (1868–1936), a sister of Emile, married Georges Gallet in 1893. From then on, George was also co-director at Courvoisier Frères. Very friendly relations existed between the Gallet company and Courvoisier Frères. In 1889 the company again won a silver medal at the Paris Exhibition with its watches.
–
The tourbillon movement is invented by Paul Loichot from Charquemont, France, which he turned inside the case to make it visible on the dial side (Swiss patent no. 30754), was patented by the Courvoisier brothers under the trade name “Mobilis” on July 4th, 1905, with the patent number Enter 19062.
–
Émile Courvoisier retired and Louis II with his son continued to run the company using the formerly listed name Courvoisier & Fils. From 1915 as L. Courvoisier and from 1920 to 1966 the company operated as L. Courvoisier & Cie Successeurs de Courvoisier Frères, Maison Fondée en 1852.