Swiss gold repeating watch with erotic automaton Circa 1790

Unsigned 18k yellow gold repeating cylinder watch 
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A Swiss yellow gold open faced quarter repeating watch with concealed erotic automaton, circa 1790. The watch features a gilt key-wound cylinder movement that strikes a steel bell. It has a white enamel dial with Breguet-style radial hour markers, an outer minute track with Arabic numerals marking every fifteen minutes, and spade-shaped hands. The polished gold case opens by pressing a button beneath the bezel, revealing a painted erotic scene inside, observed by an onlooker at the window.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Signed: No name

The movement is operational, including striking and automaton functions. The dial is generally in good condition, with only a minor chip near the winding hole. The painted erotic scene shows some crazing and small chips. The case has light scuffs and some areas of rubbing.
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Ever since clockmakers have been making watches, they have adorned, decorated and then animated them according to the fashions of the day and the tastes of their customers.

Jaquemarts, small automata striking the hours, were rapidly seized on by ingenious clockmakers to fulfil other functions… Different mechanical principles were employed to animate the scenes. The repeater mechanism was without doubt the most well-known means of animating an erotic scene. Automaton scenes in watches are very rare such as the present one with an erotic scene showing an ‘indiscretion’. Scholars can attribute most of the ones known with similar mechanisms to the famous Geneva watchmakers Chevalier & Cochet.