Swiss gold repeater with grande and petite sonnerie Circa 1890

Gold, enamel, and diamond set Full Hunter by H. Moser & Co.
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A rare and exquisite Swiss gold, enamel, and diamond-set hunting cased presentation grande and petite sonnerie clockwatch with trip-minute repetition, circa 1890. Crafted for the Nobel Brothers Petroleum Company in Azerbaijan. The watch features a gilded and highly jewelled movement, with two trains for tandem winding, lever escapement, bimetallic compensation balance, and repeating on two coiled gongs. The dial is white enamel with Roman numerals, an outer minute ring, subsidiary seconds, and blued steel hands. The 18k gold case has a front with black, blue, and red enamel and a diamond-set Russian Imperial Royal Eagle. The back features an enamel painting of the Ateshgah of Baku. It also has slides beneath the bezel marked for strike/silent and full strike/quarters only for the Grande and Petite Sonnerie. Additionally, there is a short trip repeat slide to the band, and the cuvette, case front, and back are numbered 10100. The gold polished cuvette is signed Moser in Cyrillic and English and numbered.
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Diameter: 54 mm
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Signed: Hy Moser & Cie
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The dial has a small chip below the 11 and small scratches. The strike/quarter engraving on the band is slightly rubbed, but the diamonds are all present and the enamels are intact. The movement is running and repeating, but it may benefit from a service.
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The polychrome enamel on the case lid of the present lot depicts the Branobel oil company’s logo, featuring the Fire Temple in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the firm was headquartered. In 1876, Ludwig, Robert, and Alfred Nobel founded an oil company in Baku, Azerbaijan, which they transformed into a shareholding company headquartered in St. Petersburg in 1879. By the start of the 20th century, 50% of the world’s oil extraction was centred in Baku, and the Nobel brothers owned about 40% of that production. They named their company Branobel, which was short for “Nobel Brothers” in Russian, and by 1916, they were the largest oil company in Russia. However, the firm could not withstand the Russian Revolution, and when the Bolsheviks seized power in Baku in 1920, they nationalised all oil production in Azerbaijan.
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Alfred Nobel, known for inventing dynamite and being the largest individual investor in the company, allocated $265 million to the Nobel Prize fund after he died in 1896. Approximately 12% of his wealth came from his shares in the family’s oil business, and it is believed that as much as 22% of the foundation’s endowment originated from the Branoble oil company. Alfred was deeply committed to supporting the Nobel Foundation. The first Nobel Prize was awarded to his brother Ludwig by the Imperial Russian Technological Society in 1888 for his contributions to the oil and metallurgy sector. Alfred’s will specified the fields in which the Nobel Prize should be awarded and stated that the Nobel Peace Prize should be given to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congress.”
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H. Moser & Cie is a trademark of Moser Schaffhausen AG, a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer. The original H. Moser & Cie was founded in 1828 by the independent watchmaker Heinrich Moser in St. Petersburg, Russia. Notable early clients included the Russian princes and members of the Russian Imperial Court. Vladimir Lenin also owned a Moser watch. After Moser died in 1874, the company was sold and its business in Russia was dispossessed in 1918 due to the October Revolution.
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In 1953, H. Moser & Cie continued its business in Le Locle, Switzerland where it shifted its focus from pocket watches to wristwatches. Due to the quartz crisis, H. Moser & Cie became a part of the Dixi Mechanique Group and the original brand name was dropped. In 2002, Moser Schaffhausen AG was founded by Dr Jürgen Lange together with Heinrich Moser’s great-grandson Roger Nicholas Balsiger and the brand H. Moser & Cie was formally re-launched in 2005. Since 2012, Moser Schaffhausen AG has been a subsidiary of the MELB Holding Group of the Meylan family in Switzerland.