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拍品专文
Very well preserved, the present gold and silver cased watch is not only highly attractive and pleasing to the eye with visible moving parts, it is also technically extremely fascinating and innovative.
The balance has a seconds-beating action to allow the centre seconds hand to advance in one-second increments, the escapement is ultimately derived from that invented by Moise Pouzait in the late 18th century but unlike the Pouzait escapement, the balance is small diameter and without a balance spring. Instead, a pirouette wheel with a balance spring meshes with the balance pinion, this wheel is driven by a toothed rack at one end of the lever and the escape wheel is set in the center of the dial plate.
The maker of this watch who as yet remains unknown although almost certainly Swiss, was evidently familiar with Moise Pouzait’s lever escapement which he developed in the 1780s. In 1786 Pouzait made a model of his escapement which he presented to the Geneva Societe des Arts. Due to its highly visible and mesmerizing action, Pouzait’s invention was much appreciated by the Chinese before Jacot’s invention of the “Chinese duplex” escapement which made the production of centre-seconds watches feasible in larger numbers. The maker of the present watch has ingeniously developed his own equally interesting and visually appealing version of the seconds-beating balance using a smaller diameter and therefore more stable and less delicate balance in contrast to Pouzait’s original large-diameter balance. Therefore, the end result of a centre seconds hand moving at a rate of one-second “jumps” is achieved whilst improving the watch’s practicality as a usable timepiece. The skeletonized regulator-type dial and addition of a calendar add to the watch’s overall beauty.
The balance has a seconds-beating action to allow the centre seconds hand to advance in one-second increments, the escapement is ultimately derived from that invented by Moise Pouzait in the late 18th century but unlike the Pouzait escapement, the balance is small diameter and without a balance spring. Instead, a pirouette wheel with a balance spring meshes with the balance pinion, this wheel is driven by a toothed rack at one end of the lever and the escape wheel is set in the center of the dial plate.
The maker of this watch who as yet remains unknown although almost certainly Swiss, was evidently familiar with Moise Pouzait’s lever escapement which he developed in the 1780s. In 1786 Pouzait made a model of his escapement which he presented to the Geneva Societe des Arts. Due to its highly visible and mesmerizing action, Pouzait’s invention was much appreciated by the Chinese before Jacot’s invention of the “Chinese duplex” escapement which made the production of centre-seconds watches feasible in larger numbers. The maker of the present watch has ingeniously developed his own equally interesting and visually appealing version of the seconds-beating balance using a smaller diameter and therefore more stable and less delicate balance in contrast to Pouzait’s original large-diameter balance. Therefore, the end result of a centre seconds hand moving at a rate of one-second “jumps” is achieved whilst improving the watch’s practicality as a usable timepiece. The skeletonized regulator-type dial and addition of a calendar add to the watch’s overall beauty.