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Lot Essay
The present watch features the so-called "Tixier" calibre, invented by the French watchmaker Jean Tixier who emigrated to Fleurier, Switzerland, in the mid-19th century. He designed a cut-out plate movement, often featuring centre seconds.
It is furthermore fitted with the "Jacot Duplex", also called "Chinese Duplex" escapement, invented around 1830 by Charles Edouard Jacot (1817-1897) who worked in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, Baltimore and New York. He was the nephew of Abraham Louis Perrelet, and like his celebrated uncle, a prolific inventor and innovator. He is best known for his escapement work, particularly his invention of a modified duplex escapement with a jumping seconds hand. Known as the "Jacot Duplex", it was used extensively in watches made for the Chinese market.
In The Country Life Book of Watches, T.P. Camerer Cuss describes the escapement as a form of duplex escapement invented by C.E. Jacot in 1830. It was commonly used for watches exported from Fleurier to China. The locking teeth are double, thus resembling a fork.
This escapement allows the central seconds hand to advance each second with a jumping motion, giving the impression that the watch is as precise as a precision regulator which markes the seconds. It obtains dead seconds with a movement oscillating at 14,400 vibrations/hour, with no additional mechanism. It is in fact a triple dead beat escapement derived from the duplex escapement.
Louis-Benjamin Audemars in collaboration with his teacher Philippe Samuel Meylan manufactured around 1835 a highly complicated experimental gold watch featuring, amongst others, the "Chinese" ruby duplex escapement after Jacot. The watch allowed the measuring of three independent periods of time simultaneously.
For a detailed description of the "Jacot Duplex" escapement and an illustration of the large Tixier calibre see The Mirror of Seduction - Prestigious pairs of "Chinese" Watches, Patek Philippe Museum, 2010, p. 154, pl. 8, and p. 162.
It is furthermore fitted with the "Jacot Duplex", also called "Chinese Duplex" escapement, invented around 1830 by Charles Edouard Jacot (1817-1897) who worked in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, Baltimore and New York. He was the nephew of Abraham Louis Perrelet, and like his celebrated uncle, a prolific inventor and innovator. He is best known for his escapement work, particularly his invention of a modified duplex escapement with a jumping seconds hand. Known as the "Jacot Duplex", it was used extensively in watches made for the Chinese market.
In The Country Life Book of Watches, T.P. Camerer Cuss describes the escapement as a form of duplex escapement invented by C.E. Jacot in 1830. It was commonly used for watches exported from Fleurier to China. The locking teeth are double, thus resembling a fork.
This escapement allows the central seconds hand to advance each second with a jumping motion, giving the impression that the watch is as precise as a precision regulator which markes the seconds. It obtains dead seconds with a movement oscillating at 14,400 vibrations/hour, with no additional mechanism. It is in fact a triple dead beat escapement derived from the duplex escapement.
Louis-Benjamin Audemars in collaboration with his teacher Philippe Samuel Meylan manufactured around 1835 a highly complicated experimental gold watch featuring, amongst others, the "Chinese" ruby duplex escapement after Jacot. The watch allowed the measuring of three independent periods of time simultaneously.
For a detailed description of the "Jacot Duplex" escapement and an illustration of the large Tixier calibre see The Mirror of Seduction - Prestigious pairs of "Chinese" Watches, Patek Philippe Museum, 2010, p. 154, pl. 8, and p. 162.