Swiss gold minute repeating chronograph watch Circa 1900

Gold lever minute repeating watch with chronograph
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A fine Swiss, minute repeating, 18K yellow gold, hunting-cased, keyless pocket watch with chronograph. Attributable to Le Phare (Barbezat Baillot) with Swiss patent 13244, circa 1900.
White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute and outermost chronograph divisions, recessed subsidiary seconds dial. Gilt Louis XV hands. Straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, repeating on gongs by a push button on the band. Signed cuvette and numbered on the case.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Signed: C. Barbezat-Baillot
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The different features of the movement, such as the fly regulator on the repeating train, lead one to think that this watch was produced by Barbezat Baillot in Le Locle, (at that time the most important maker of repeating watches of this type), which were commercialised under several trademarks such as Dixi and Le Phare. Le Phare. The company was founded as Guye & Barbezat, the founders were Charles Barbezat-Baillot (1847-1938) and Henry Guye (1838- 1877). In 1888, the firm’s name was changed to Le Phare, being the registered name of their complicated watches. In 1900, Barbezat-Baillot advertised their brands that year as: La Locloise; l’Esperanto; Le Phare; Tempora and La Volapuk. Barbezat-Baillot was a member of the jury at the Brussels Universal Exhibition in 1897 and at Liege in 1905.