Manufacturer: Louis Bornand, Genève Year: Circa 1890 Case No: 4588 Material: 18K yellow gold Calibre: Manual, two-train gilt lever movement, 32 jewels Dimensions: 58mm Diameter Signed: Dial signed, case numbered.
Catalogue Essay
The pocket watch is the original gentlemen’s timepiece. Similar to the modern wristwatch, the pocket watch illustrated one's station in life.
The present, highly complicated pocket watch is a tribute to the risking skill and craftsmanship of Swiss watchmaking in the late 19th century. Certainly a watch that could only have been afforded by a man of distinction, its extremely fine movement combines a perpetual calendar, chronograph, and a rare five-minute repeating mechanism, which chimes the hours followed by each of the elapsed five minutes since the hour. Exceptionally rare and hardly ever seen in pocket watches of this era, it also incorporates an alarm complication that strikes on gongs, a mechanism more often found on clocks of the time. Two gear trains are employed – one for the striking mechanism and the other for timekeeping, and another extremely rare feature illustrating the quality of this watch.
The watch is preserved in excellent overall condition with a flawless, white enamel dial. Today’s complicated wristwatches follow a long and rich history of traditional watchmaking and this fine Louis Bornand pocket watch is a wonderful representation of the past, and the horological excellency of the late 19th century.
A very fine, rare, and unusual yellow gold five minute repeating open face two-train pocket watch with chronograph, perpetual calendar with moon phase, and alarm
Circa 1890 58mm Diameter Dial signed, case numbered.
