Swiss silver poor man’s tourbillon pocket watch Circa 1900
- Kenmerk
- AL2681
- Diameter
- 55 mm
- Estimate
- € 2.000 - 4.000
- Price sold
- € 1.650
Silver open faced lever watch by Courvoisier
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A Swiss silver open faced poor man’s tourbillon pocket watch according to Swiss Patent No. 30754 by Paul Loichot, circa 1900. This watch features a handwound full plate movement with lever escapement, marked on the plate Brevet 30754 (Courvoisier patent after Paul Loichot). It has a white enamel dial with a small eccentric time display in the upper half, featuring radial Roman hour numerals, outer minute dots, and gilt hands. Polychrome enamel painting decorates both sides of the dial. Below the dial, there is an ornamentally engraved sighting window made of gilded metal with a bogie tourbillon, which completes one rotation in a minute with the balance. The silver case has a guilloché cover.
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Diameter: 55 mm.
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Signed: Brevet 30754
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Paul Loichot, a French watchmaker and clock manufacturer, specialised in creating ebauches (movement blanks) in Charquemont, Doubs, France. Born in 1840, he secured Swiss patent No. 30754 for a carousel style tourbillon. In the USA, this patent was registered under the name of Joseph Burtin, a resident of Charquemont. Paul Loichot was awarded several Swiss patents: Patent No. 35346 on 28 December 1905 for a mechanism for a grande sonnerie et répétion striking mechanism, and Patent No. 38360 on 16 January 1907 for a mechanism for an independent second hand. In 1904, his tourbillon patent 30754 was licensed to Courvoisier Frères, La Chaux-de-Fonds.
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Courvoisier Frères
Henri-Louis and Philippe Auguste Courvoisier traded from 1842 on under the name Courvoisier Frères. When more brothers joined the partnership in 1882, they changed the company name to Courvoisier Fils. Specialising in high quality watches, they were commissioned by the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds to create a watch for the Prussian King William IV; at the time, this ultra-flat watch was supposedly the thinnest in the world. The tourbillon movement invented by the Swiss Paul Loichot (which he turned in the case so it would be visible from the front) was patented for the Courvoisier brothers on July 4th, 1905, under the number 19062 and the name Mobilis.
Signed: Brevet 30754

















