Swiss gold watch with Egyptian zodiac symbols Circa 1826

Gold and enamel pocket watch by Bautte & Moynier
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A decorative, key-winding, gold and enamel Swiss pocket watch with Egyptian zodiac symbols, circa 1826.
Gilded brass and steel movement with ruby end stones, going barrel, cylinder escapement. The gold enamelled case of the Museum’s watch depicts a Ptolemaic (305–30 b.c.) sandstone bas-relief representing the constellations of the Egyptian zodiac, which was brought to France in 1821 from the Temple of Hathor in Dendera, Egypt, and given to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. The image is a fine example of the art of champlevé enamel, then available in Geneva, and a document of Greco- Egyptian astronomy for foreign and French cognoscenti.
The inner case is signed.
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Diameter: 43 mm
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Signed: Bautte & Moynier à Genève
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The enamel at the top of the three o’clock numeral of the dial of the Vacheron and Constantin watch is damaged; there is a small scratch in the gold above the Vatican portion of the Saint Peter’s Square scene; and slight scratches appear on the cartouche with the serial number.
There is a small piece of enamel missing from the two o’clock position on the back of the Bautte and Moynier watch case and several areas of enamel loss on both the pendant and ring. Both watches have been carefully preserved and are part of a large gift of nineteenth-century