Early Swiss silver single hand keywinding pocket watch Circa 1660

Silver verge pocket watch
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An early Swiss silver single hand keywinding pocket watch with alarm, made by Abraham Cailliatte in Geneva, circa 1660. Two-piece case with split bezel, the back entirely and finely pierced and engraved with foliage and strawberry flowers. Silver champlevé dial with radial Roman numerals; inner gilded brass revolving alarm setting disc with radial Arabic numerals and blued steel single hand. A full plate, gilded brass movement, Balustre pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement, monometallic circular foliot (polished steel), pierced and engraved silver Louis XIII continental cock, silver regulator disc, alarm train with fixed gilded brass barrel, pierced and engraved with foliage. Signature on the movement.
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Diameter: 38 mm
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Signed: Abraham Cailliatte,  Geneva
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Abraham Cailliatte, Geneva, March 2, 1642 – Geneva, April 22, 1710
Abraham Cailliatte is the son of Matthieu Cailliatte (1587-1661), who became a citizen of Geneva in 1612, and of Louise Penet (1606-1649). Matthieu Cailliatte was in charge of the fortification works of the city since 1636, as directeur des travaux de fortifications. Matthieu’s father was Jean Cailliatte (c.1536-1619), a goldsmith and barker born in Venice, a bourgeois of Geneva (May 17, 1583). His grandfather was Vincento Cailliatte, c.1513-1577, born in Chioggia, Veneto, resident of Geneva. According to some authors, the Latin boat was introduced on Lake Geneva by Vincent and Jean Cailliatte. Abraham Cailliatte apprenticed as a watchmaker to Isaac Penard (1619-1676) in 1655.
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He married on June 22, 1664, Anne Patron (1646-1706); the couple had 14 children, seven of whom reached adulthood. As a master watchmaker, he made simple watches and watches with astronomical and astrological complications, some with enamelled cases. He signed an apprenticeship contract with Jean Gentil in 1672. He frequently worked with Pierre I Huaud (1612-1680), so-called le père, the Father, a Huguenot emigrant from Châtellerault, near Blois, where he was an apprentice goldsmith. The latter, also an enamel painter, introduced this art to Geneva. We know several examples of their collaboration or that of his sons, Pierre II Huaud (1647-1698), Jean-Pierre Huaud (1655-1723) and Ami Huaud (1657-1724), including watches sold by our company. Abraham Cailliatte lived all his life in the district of Saint-Gervais, on the right bank of the Rhône, and died at the age of 70 from a chest fluxion with fever.