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Lot Essay
A visually appealing and very well preserved example of mid-19th century Swiss watchmaking, the present timepiece is an early and technically interesting two time zone watch with stoppable jumping centre seconds and flying 1/5ths of a second indications.
Unlike the majority of similar watches fitted with two wheel trains, the mechanism of this unusual dual time zone watch essentially has only one wheel train driving a set of motion work for both dials. The hands on both dials are each adjusted by an individual arbour accessed via the cuvette. In this sense the watch is a true dual time zone watch as it has two independent time displays sharing the same mechanism.
The two time zones function of this watch is indeed a highly unusual feature as, when it was manufactured around 1850, the establishment of time zones was still in its early years. On 1 November 1884, during the International Meridian Conference in Washington D.C., it was agreed to establish international zones according to the same system. GMT, Greenwich Mean Time, was considered the "time zero" and the twenty-four standard meridians marked the centres of the zones. The International Dateline was placed along the 180-degree meridian in the Pacific Ocean. Around the world, clocks were reset to adapt to the new system of timekeeping.
Courvoisier Frères, La Chaux-de-Fonds, previously Courvoisier & Cie. successors to Robert & Courvoisier, were a famous Swiss watchmaking firm run by the brothers Henri-Louis and Philippe Auguste Courvoisier from 1842 to 1852. Specialising in high quality watches, they were commissioned by the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds to manufacture a watch for the Prussian King William IV. The Breguet-style watch was presented to him by the towns of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Les Planchette on the occasion of his visit in 1842 (Neuchâtel was still part of Prussia then), it was Breguet-style with the Town Hall Square and a crowd of enthusiastic people engraved to the back, the dial with a portrait of the sovereign. According to Henri-Louis Courvoisier who explained the mechanism it was the flattest watch in the world (see Swiss Timepiece Makers 1775-1975 by Kathleen H. Pritchard, pp. C-85-88).
Unlike the majority of similar watches fitted with two wheel trains, the mechanism of this unusual dual time zone watch essentially has only one wheel train driving a set of motion work for both dials. The hands on both dials are each adjusted by an individual arbour accessed via the cuvette. In this sense the watch is a true dual time zone watch as it has two independent time displays sharing the same mechanism.
The two time zones function of this watch is indeed a highly unusual feature as, when it was manufactured around 1850, the establishment of time zones was still in its early years. On 1 November 1884, during the International Meridian Conference in Washington D.C., it was agreed to establish international zones according to the same system. GMT, Greenwich Mean Time, was considered the "time zero" and the twenty-four standard meridians marked the centres of the zones. The International Dateline was placed along the 180-degree meridian in the Pacific Ocean. Around the world, clocks were reset to adapt to the new system of timekeeping.
Courvoisier Frères, La Chaux-de-Fonds, previously Courvoisier & Cie. successors to Robert & Courvoisier, were a famous Swiss watchmaking firm run by the brothers Henri-Louis and Philippe Auguste Courvoisier from 1842 to 1852. Specialising in high quality watches, they were commissioned by the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds to manufacture a watch for the Prussian King William IV. The Breguet-style watch was presented to him by the towns of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Les Planchette on the occasion of his visit in 1842 (Neuchâtel was still part of Prussia then), it was Breguet-style with the Town Hall Square and a crowd of enthusiastic people engraved to the back, the dial with a portrait of the sovereign. According to Henri-Louis Courvoisier who explained the mechanism it was the flattest watch in the world (see Swiss Timepiece Makers 1775-1975 by Kathleen H. Pritchard, pp. C-85-88).