Swiss pocket watch with perpetual calendar and chain Circa 1888

Silver hunting cased pocket watch by Philibert Jeanbourquin
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A Swiss graduate’s work with perpetual calendar and decorative silver watch chain, circa 1888.
Silver, lavishly florally engraved hunting case, lateral hand-engraved with foliate decor, applied pink gold monogram PJ, a hunting scene on an applied pink gold ornament, and a silver dome with engraving: Philibert Jeanbourquin, Septembre 1888, Quantieme, Ancre Ligne Droite, 3 Chatons, Balancier Compensé, Remontoir, 20 Rubies, Spiral Breguet. Signed enamel dial with radial Roman hours and Arabic minutes, auxiliary seconds, moon phase, three small displays for the digital data, and gold Louis XV hands. German silver, ground 1/2 plate movement with a barrel, screwed gold chatons, lever escapement, screw compensation balance, blued balance spring, and counterpoised lever.
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Diameter: 56 mm
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Weight: 207 g
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Signed: Philibert Jeanbourquin, La Chaux-de-Fonds
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Around 1888 Philibert Jeanbourquin was most likely a pupil at the watchmaking school in La Chaux de Fonds. In 1933 the nameJeanbourquin appears again in La Chaux de Fonds when a company Marcel Jeanbourquin & Cie. is established; it still exists in 1986 as Lucien Jeanbourquin and it is quite possible that Marcel and Lucien were descendants – such as son and grandson – of Philibert. It is said that the godfather of a pupil usually paid for a watch case to go with the finished movement at the end of the apprenticeship – here, this must have been quite a wealthy man!