Lot 402

Alphonse Bovet, London, 51 mm, 130 g, circa 1828
A gentleman's fine English pocket watch with duplex escapement
Case: 18k gold, case maker's punch mark "LC" (Louis Comptesse, Soho, London). Dial: enamel, off-white. Movm.: full plate movement, chain/fusee, three-arm steel balance.
The House Bovet
Established in 1822 by the four Bovet brothers, including Edouard who had settled in Canton, the company rose to prominence for its "Chinese watches" that were made in Fleurier. Edouard Bovet was born 1797 in Fleurier, the son of Jean-Frédéric Bovet, himself a master-watchmaker in Fleurier in Val de Travers, a valley that runs through the Swiss Jura mountains. Edouard Bovet completed his watchmaking apprenticeship 1814 and, with brothers Alphonse and Frédéric, left Fleurier for London, then an important centre for the manufacture but most of all the hub of the European watch trade. Edouard Bovet left London on April 20th 1818 on board the Orwell, a ship of the East India Company. He came ashore in Canton on August 16th. Shortly after his arrival, he sold four watches for 10,000 Swiss francs, the equivalent of one million dollars today. In 1822 Edouard Bovet, now living in Canton, brothers Alphonse and Frédéric, who had stayed behind in London, and a third brother, Gustave, a watchmaker in Fleurier, set up a partnership to sell watches to China. The first bill of sale for the Bovet company was drafted in London, on May 1st. Business thrived, and the company transferred its manufacturing activity to Fleurier.
Source: https://www.hautehorlogerie.org/en/brands/brand/h/bovet-1822/

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