Lot 58

Vitrolles à Paris, 58 mm, 212 g, circa 1700
An early "Oignon" quarter repeating verge pocket watch
Case: silver. Dial: enamel, "en bosse". Movm.: full plate movement, keywind, chain/fusee, 1 hammer/1 bell, three-arm steel balance.
"Oignons" were most popular in France during the last 30 years of the Sun King’s reign; only a few of them were produced later than that. Single-handed oignons are always wound through the hand’s pivot where a central steel wheel under the dial transmits the power to another wheel on the worm gear shaft; two-handed oignons such as this one are designed with a winding hole in the dial. Presumably there were workshops in France that produced ebauches for oignons, however, as of today no such ebauche has ever surfaced. Oignons have a large gap between the plates which means that the parts of the movement are well visible; the viewer can easily see the individual parts and how they work like in a large-scale model - this was part of the great appeal these watches had. The oignon is robust and useful pocket watches that - in contrast to the previous pocket and pendant watches at the time - shows the time with adequate accuracy.

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