Barrwaiss

Barrwaiss, London, Swiss, made for the English market, circa 1790. Very fine 18K gold, quarter repeating self winding watch. Three body, engine-turned. Hinged gilt brass cuvette. White enamel with radial Arabic numerals. Blued steel "arrow" hands. Gilt brass full plate with cylinder pillars, going barrel, cylinder escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring with regulator. The shaped platinum winding weight, pivoted on the back plate border has steel banking springs at its base. Signed on the dial and cuvette. In very good condition, with photocopy of the technical drawings of a similar watch movement. Diam. 59 mm. Notes The movement of this watch is almost identical to that from the Museum of the Ecole d'Horlogerie in Le Lode (Switzerland), illustrated by A. Chapuis and E. Jaquet in La mantra autouatique ancienne, Neuchatel, 1952, fig 106, p.106. This watch was certainly made in Switzerland for the English Market, it was therefore signed with the name of an English maker. It is amusing to point out the apocryphal signature is spelt wrongly.