Swiss yellow gold minute repeating lever pocket watch Circa 1880

Gold hunting cased watch by Louis Audemars
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A Swiss 18 carat yellow gold, minute repeating hunting cased keyless pocket watch with gold wheel train and gold plated chain, circa 1880. An engine-turned case with polished borders and a hinged gold cuvette. White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and outermost five-minute numerals, subsidiary seconds and yellow gold spade hands. Nickle movement, 27 jewels, gold wheel train, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Signed: Louis Audemars  Swiss
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Audemars Piguet & Cie. Jules Louis Audemars, born on March 28th, 1851 and died on October 15th, 1918 and Edward Auguste Piguet born in 1853 and died in 1919 were two young and ambitious watchmakers who established their workshop in 1875 in their home village Le Brassus, Vallée de Joux, Switzerland. Audemars was in charge of production and technical aspects while Piguet focused on sales and management. Believing in the power of the Vallée de Joux’s network of artisanship and following their firm convictions, they set on crafting unique complicated mechanisms by hand at a time when serial production was looming with the rise of industrialisation.
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While the two entrepreneurs first produced complicated movements that were sold to Geneva-based firms, they soon orchestrated the production of complete watches in the region by coordinating the activities of a variety of craftsmen, buying in blanks, cases, dials, bracelets and sending out pieces for gem-setting and decorating. The miniaturisation, design, assembly and setting of movements were then done at Audemars Piguet’s workbenches. The company ledgers demonstrate that nearly 80% of the 1600 watches produced by Audemars Piguet between 1882 and 1892 included at least one, if not several complications. Refined chiming, chronograph and astronomical watches, assembled and finished by hand, have remained the beating heart of Audemars Piguet ever since.