Alpine Sunset” Swiss

“Alpine Sunset” Swiss, Geneva. Made for the Russian market, circa 1840. Extremely fine, rare and unusual, 18K gold, painted on enamel and champlevé enamel pocket watch with center seconds, mirror polished steel movement and duplex escapement. Two-body, the bezels, pendant and bow decorated with gold flowers and foliage and green champlevé enamel, the back decorated with a finely painted on enamel view of an alpine lake with opalescent sunset sky, the border finely decorated with translucent and opaque enamel birds and foliage on a polished gold ground. Glazed gilt-rimmed cuvette. White enamel with narrow radial Roman numerals, outer minutes and seconds divisions, Arabic quarter-hour numerals. Blued steel pierced “Chinese” hands. 46 mm., mirror polished steel, “Chinese” calibre, standing barrel, 8 jewels, five-spoke wheels, duplex escapement, bimetallic compensation balance with blued steel wedge-shaped weights, flat balance spring, index regulator. Diam. 55 mm. Property of a Swiss Collector Notes The decoration of the case of the present watch is highly unusual and incorporates a mixture of design elements found in watches made for the Chinese, Islamic and Indian markets. The watch movement and dial are those typically found on watches for the Chinese market, the alpine scene decorating the case is typical for the Islamic market and the surrounding decoration is Indian/Asian in decoration. It is likely that the present watch was made for the Russian market because of t