Swiss painted on enamel hunting cased dress watch Circa 1920

Gold keyless Hunting Dogs Eterna dress watch
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A fine 14 Carat gold and painted on enamel hunting cased keyless Hunting Dogs Eterna dress watch. Made by Eterna in Grenchen, canton Solothurn Switzerland, circa 1920.  Four body case with a polished back, front cover decorated with a painted on enamel scene of gundogs in a landscape and a hinged gold cuvette.
Matte gilt dial with black painted Dauphine numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds and blued steel Breguet hands. Rhodium plated movement with wavy line decoration, 15 jewels, straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, self compensating Breguet balance spring and an index regulator.
Dial signed.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Signed: Eterna
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Eterna SA / Schild Fréres & Co.
Eterna

Eterna S.A. is a Swiss watch manufacturer established in 1856 and currently part of the Citychamp group.

History
Dr. Girard & Schild

On 7 November 1856 the physician Dr. Josef Girard and the school teacher Urs Schild founded the raw movement manufacturer Dr. Girard and Schild Ebauches in Grenchen. The company was formally organized eight years later, as production grew.
In 1866, Girard retired from the company, selling his shares to Urs Schild for CHF 35,000. Schild as sole owner introduced the production of complete mechanical watches under the new name, Präzisionsuhren-Fabrik Gebrüder Schild (Precision Watches Factory Schild Brothers). In the following decades, greater mechanization was slowly introduced, including water- and steam-powered machines.

Eterna
Since 1875 (or perhaps as late as 1889), the first watches signed with the Eterna name on the dial appeared. Beginning in 1878, the company also produced its own cases and dials, becoming a complete manufacturer. Urs Schild became a National Councilor in 1882 but died in 1888. The company was taken over by his brother, Adolph Schild, his widow, and his sons Max and Theodor. The company was soon renamed Gebr. Schild & Co. even as the brand name Eterna became more prominent. Adolph Schild left in 1896 to found A. Schild SA (ASSA), a movement maker that would remain mostly independent of the Schild operations until the creation of the modern ETA in 1979.
Max Schild travelled to the United States around 1890 to see the mechanized American production model. He returned with machines to help automate the company’s production, but these ideas proved unpopular. He left the company and his brother, Theodor Schild became the head of the company in 1899, serving in that capacity for 33 years. The company was then known as Schild Fréres but officially changed its name to Eterna in 1905.
Eterna was an early proponent of wristwatches after the turn of the century, patenting “safety” lugs in 1904 and introducing the world’s first alarm watch prototype in 1908. That watch went into mass production in 1914. Eterna was gaining renown in those years, winning the Grand Prix at the Swiss National Exhibition in 1910. By the 1920’s, the company had grown to produce over a million watch movements each year, introducing men’s products like a cigar lighter watch and protected self winding sports watch, the Hexa. The company continued strength in women’s watches as well, with a tiny baguette movement rivalling Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Calibre 101.