Duval & Mathieu à Rouen

Duval & Mathieu à Rouen, with Paris hallmarks for 1778. Fine and rare 18 ct. gold, early self-winding watch with special escapement. Double body, Louis XVI, polished. White enamel with Roman numerals and outer Arabic minute ring. Gold "poker and beetle" hands. Hinged gilt brass, inverted full plate with cylindrical pillars, going barrel, virgule escapement, plain brass three-arm balance beneath the dial, gold egg-shaped winding weight pivoted on the border of the back plate, with steel banking springs. Signed on the dial and the winding weight. In very good condition. Diam. 44 mm. Notes Very fine example of a very early self-winding watch, in very good condition. In the period this watch was made, such watches were usually produced in Switzerland therefore, examples with a French signature and a case with French hallmarks are extremely rare. Duval From a long line of Rouen watch-makers, Duval worked in Fréville, a small village near by the Channel, during the Revolution time. He made in " an VI" (1798), a very important chronometer with grid-iron compensation, extra large second beating balance and Pierre Le Roy escapement, now in The Time Museum, Rockford Illinois, U.S.A. Together with the pocket chronometer made by the Frères Goyffon, in the Musée National des Techniques (C. N.A.M.), this chronometer is the only other piece known to exist to be fitted with a detached escapement similar to that of the celebrated Horloge Marine made by the eminent Pierre Le Roy. Read more…