Fine French 18 carat yellow gold keyless pocket watch Circa 1870

Gold open faced lever
–
A very fine French 18 carat yellow gold keyless pocket watch, circa 1870. A polished case, hinged gold cuvette with inscription Médailles aux Expositions Depuis 1806. White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and outermost five minute numerals, subsidiary seconds and gold fleur de lys hands. Matte gilt movement, 19 jewels, wolf’s tooth winding, gold wheel train, straight line counterpoise lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel helical balance spring, micrometre regulator. Dial, case and movement signed.
–
Diameter: 50 mm
–
Signed: Charles Oudin  Paris
–
Charles Oudin, a talented and innovative watch and clockmaker, was a student of Abraham-Louis Breguet. Oudin excelled in creating watches with the Equation of Time feature and developed a version of this complication that could be integrated into Breguet’s souscription watches. By 1805, he had established his workshop at the Palais Royal, Galerie de Pierre. In 1819, one of Oudin’s Equation of Time watches was showcased at the Paris Exhibition.