Swiss 18 carat gold minute repeating watch Circa 1861-1862

Gold minute repeating presentation watch
–
A fine Swiss 18k gold hunting cased keyless minute repeating Louis Audemars lever watch for Bourdin, historical presentation watch, circa 1861-1862. Rhodium-plated, with going barrel, train of gold wheels, straight-line equilibrated lever escapement, à moustaches, compensated balance with gold poising screws and blued steel hairspring with terminal curve.
Round-shaped, pocket watch, guilloché engine-turned cover and case back, hinged case back, subsidiary seconds at 6 and one horological complication: Minute-repeater on two steel gongs (activated by the slide at 5 o’clock) Cuvette engraved in taille-douce (fine cut) with the mention Donné par S.A.R. / Mgneur le Comte de Villafranca / le 4 novembre 1863 (Given by His Royal Highness, Monseigneur the Count de Villafranca, November 4, 1863); cover engraved in taille-douce with the cypher N.
–
Diameter: 49 mm
–
Signed: Louis Audemars
–
Extract from the Archives.

Presentation Watch. A presentation watch is a watch offered by, or on its behalf, by a ruler/leader (Emperor, King, President, Prime Minister, Company Director, etc.) as an acknowledgement or thanks to a third person. Savoie-Villafranca-Soissons, Eugène-Emmanuel de Paris, April 14, 1816 – Turin, December 15, 1888, The Count of Villafranca and Prince of Carignan was an important military and statesman of the 19th century, active in France and Italy. A lover of art and watchmaking, he maintains close contact with Ath.-El. Bourdin, watchmaker and mechanician in Paris. Bourdin, Ath.-El. He is recorded as working in Paris (rue de la Paix, 28), between 1840 and the 1860s. Well known for the high quality of his works and particularly for his carriage clocks, he regularly presented them in the Paris Exhibitions and won medals in 1844, 1855 and 1867. Some of these earlier clocks are signed “Horloger du Roi” (Watchmaker of the King). With the Breguet, Leroy and Oudin houses of Paris, he is one of the sponsors and/or retailers of the timekeepers manufactured by the Louis Audemars workshops in Le Brassus (Vallée de Joux).