Swiss open faced minute repeating keyless lever watch Circa 1887

Pink gold and platinum pocket watch by Girard-Perregaux
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A very fine and possibly unique Swiss pink gold and platinum open faced minute repeating keyless lever watch, made for HH Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, circa 1887. Damascened lever movement with cut and compensated bimetallic balance, featuring a jewelled gold centre wheel and polished steel hammers striking gongs. The silver dial is finely engraved with raised gold floral motifs and black Turkish numerals, including a subsidiary seconds dial with Turkish numerals. The polished platinum and gold case bears an engraved monogram for HH Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, it includes a gold slide repeat button on the band and a gold bow, and it is numbered. The cuvette is signed by Girard Perregaux, Chaux-de-Fonds.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: Girard-Perregaux, Chaux-De-Fonds
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Ismail Pasha (1830-1895), also known as Ismail the Magnificent, served as Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879. His tenure was marked by extravagant spending on infrastructure projects, agricultural development, educational reforms, as well as on palaces and entertainment. This lavish expenditure significantly increased the national debt. In 1879, he was removed from power at the behest of the British. Ismail Pasha is notably remembered for his role in the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
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Ismail Pasha had ten children, including the future King Fouad I of Egypt, who would later father King Farouk. After King Farouk’s forced abdication, the Egyptian royal family’s palace collections were catalogued by Sotheby’s and auctioned by the Egyptian government in 1954. The collection featured an impressive array of watches from various eras, including a star shaped watch by David Ramsay (c. 1625), a gold astronomical watch by George Margetts (1783), several pieces by Breguet, remarkable watches by Piguet & Meylan, and two significant, highly complex watches by Vacheron Constantin—one of which was the most complicated watch by Vacheron Constantin at the time. Some watches in the catalogue were described as having the monogram, initials, or portrait of Ismail Pasha on their cases. However, none matched the description of the current watch, as Ismail Pasha had been exiled from Egypt by the time it was made and was residing in Sultan Abdülhamid II’s Emigran Palace on the Bosphorus in Constantinople.