Swiss small gold pocket watch with jumping seconds Circa 1860

Open faced gentleman’s pocket watch by Henri Perregaux
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A small Swiss gentleman’s pocket watch with jumping centre seconds, circa 1860.
A tiered 18-carat gold case, the back of this watch shows an exquisite engraving of a painting by Adolphe Mouilleron after an illustration by E.J.C. Hamman, showing the physician Andreas Vesalius in his study, with a corpse, his books and his instruments. Signed gold dome. Signed white enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minutes/seconds track, subsidiary dial for the seconds, centre second hand, and gold Breguet hands. Bridge movement, two barrels, gold screw compensation balance.
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Diameter: 45 mm
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Weight: 64 g
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Signed: Henri Perregaux, Locle
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Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)
Andreas Vesalius was born in Brussels, a Flemish physician and anatomist of the Renaissance; he is generally regarded as the founder of modern anatomy. Vesalius studied at the universities of Leuven and Paris. In Leuven, he was able to conduct his first public autopsy in 1537, before going to Italy where he received a doctorate and became a professor at the surgical ward in Padua. Vesalius went to Venice, Bologna, Basel and Pisa; he was appointed personal physician to Emperor Charles V and later to the court at The Hague, he published an enormous number of anatomical papers and treatises. On the return journey of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Vesalius was taken ill and died on the Greek island of Zakynthos.