Swiss gold quarter repeating pocket watch Circa 1900

Gold hunting cased pocket watch by Invicta
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A fine, rare Swiss minute repeating hunting cased pocket watch 1ère Qualité, circa 1900.
18-carat rose gold, polished, à goutte case with signed gold dome and slide for repeating mechanism. Enamel dial with Roman radial hours, extra seconds and gold spade hands. Bridge movement, frosted, gilt, screwed chatons, wolfteeth winding wheels, two hammers / two gongs and screw compensation balance.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Weight: 110 g
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Signed: Invicta, La Chaux de Fonds
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Invicta was founded by Raphaël Picard (1810-1884) in 1837 as R. Picard in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Around 1890 the company was renamed Les Fils de R. Picard; Armand Picard (1856-1926) and Gabriel Picard (1865-1935) were the successors.
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In 1895 Picard won a gold medal at the National Exhibition in Bordeaux. Invicta was derived from Latin, which translates as “invincible”. Picard’s company motto was to offer high-quality Swiss watches at affordable prices. In addition to regular pocket watches, the company also supplied clocks with striking mechanisms, calendar mechanisms, moon phase displays and chronographs with movements by Charles-Ami Barbezat-Baillot. In 1896 the brand name Invicta was introduced in addition to “Telescope”. In 1906 the company had 26 employees; in 1922, there were 30. During the First World War, Invicta was active in the production of ammunition with, for example, Mirum SA; Zeno, Eigeldinger & Co (34 employees in 1912; 40 in 1922); and the Ebel factory of the Blum family (23 employees in 1912 25 in 1922). The factory was newly built shortly after 1906 based on a project by the architect Eugène Schaltbrand at Léopold-Robert 109. From about 1913, worked closely with the Seeland Watch Co. . It was not until the time of quartz watches in the 1970s that sales of watches fell so sharply that production had to be stopped.
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In 1991 an American investment company from the USA bought the company run by the Picard family. Since then, Invicta Watch Group’s headquarters have been in Hollywood, Florida.