Yi Fu" (maintaining wealth

"Yi Fu" (maintaining wealth), Fleurier (Val de Travers), Swiss, made for the Chinese market, circa 1830. Fine and very rare silver, dead centre seconds watch with early duplex-lever escapement. ouble body with fixed bezel, of the type used for watches made for the Chinese market, polished. Hinged glazed silver cuvette. White enamel with Roman numerals. Blued steel "spaid" hands. Gilt brass "Chinese" calibre with sunk free standing barrel, fully engraved with scrolls, JeanRenaud type dupex-lever escapement, steel three-arm balance with wedge shaped and partly blued steel weights and ruby end-stone, flat balance spring and regulator. Chinese signature on the case and movement. hl very good condition. Diam. 56 mm. Notes This watch is almost identical to the regular type of silver watches, sold by pair to the Chinese market. It is fitted with the very rare duplex-lever escapement, invented by Jean Renaud, usually found on much later watches, it is almost certainly one of the earliest watches of this type, completed with this escapement. According to Ch. E Bobillier: Rapport sur l' horlogerie à Fleurier, 1873, Protocoles de la Société du Musée de Fleurier, Elie Jean Renaud from Travers, was the first watch jewels maker in the Val de Travers. He learned jewelling in London where he also learned how to make the duplexlever escapement which allow to have a centre seconds beating hand with a balance beating 1200 an houx. In Fleurier, several watchmakers working for the Ch