Swiss rare gold quarter repeating watch with alarm Circa 1800

Gold open faced cylinder watch
–
A fine and rare Swiss 18 carat rose gold open faced quarter repeating pocket watch with alarm made by Brandt Jeanrenaud & Robert in La Chaux-de-Fonds, circa 1800. This watch features a two part case punched with maker’s mark HC, featuring a reeded band and pierced sound openings, housing a bell fixed inside the back. The white enamel dial is signed and showcases Breguet hour numerals, an outer minute track, winding and alarm winding apertures at 1 and 11 o’clock, a center alarm hand and decorative hands for the time indication. The signed fire gilt full plate movement, ∅ 41.7 mm, includes fixed barrels, a cylinder escapement, three arm under sprung brass balance, Le Roy type all-or-nothing repetition mechanism, a gilt signed cuvette and the ability to repeat the time on the bell by depressing the pendant.
–
Diameter: 56 mm
–
Signed: Brandt Jeanrenaud & Robert
–
The bell, signed Scherer Frères 19ae, has scratches. The signature tells us the bellmaker’s name and the bell’s size in lines. Interestingly, the same signature was found on springs used in important automata. This means that the Scherer brothers, who made the springs, were also bellmakers. It is uncommon to find repeaters with alarms. Research shows that less than three per cent of repeaters had an alarm. 
–
Brandt Jeanrenaud et Robert (also known as Robert Brandt et Jeanrenaud) was an early 19th century Swiss watchmaking firm based in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The company operated from the 1800s to the 1820s/1840s and was best known for pieces made between 1810 and 1820.
–
Brandt Jeanrenaud et Robert made high quality pocket watches and clocks with remarkably complex mechanisms, always distinguished by interesting or unusual features, such as visible dials or independent jumping seconds.
 –
The company was presumably renamed Robert Brandt & Cie, continuing family and business traditions into the later 19th century.
–
Some of the company’s historical timepieces are preserved in institutions like the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Neuchâtel.