Swiss watch with inlaid polychrome enamel medallions Circa 1859

Pocket watch attributed to François Czapek, Genève & Paris
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An important and very fine Geneva hunter with pivoted detent escapement and inlaid polychrome enamel medallions showing Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, created on the occasion of the French and Italian victory over Austria in 1859.
18-Carat gold case, elaborately engraved with flowers, oak leaves and stars; front with central oval miniature, exquisite polychrome enamel portrait of Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleons III, in a blue brocade dress. Back with a portrait of Emperor Napoleon III in regimental uniform with decorations and red sash, after a painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1808-1873), engraved inscription: Napoleon III, Liberateur De L’Univers; lavishly engraved gold dome with a portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte in a frame of oak leaves; centre part with engraved wave pattern, florally engraved pendant and bow, casemaker’s mark JG. Enamel dial with Roman radial hours, extra seconds and blued filigree hands. Bridge movement, frosted, gilt, wolfteeth winding wheels, pivoted detent chronometer escapement according to Berthoud, gold screw compensation balance, blued balance spring.
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Diameter: 47 mm
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Weight: 105 g
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Signed: No name
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Napoleon III (1808-1873) Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was president of the French Republic from 1848 to 1852 and Emperor of France from 1852 to 1870. Elected by popular vote, he carried out a coup d’etat on December 2, 1851, and established a dictatorship; he ascended the throne as Napoleon III in December 1852. His was a somewhat authoritarian empire initially, which began to show liberal tendencies in the 1860s. He was deposed after having been captured in the Franco-Prussian war.