Jacques-Frédéric Houriet

Jacques-Frédéric Houriet, No. 76961. Made circa 1820. Very fine and very rare, 18K pink gold, double-train independent dead center-seconds pocket watch with 12-hour and minute register. Four-body, ”Directoire,” solid, entirely engine-turned, case back with monogram, gold hinged cuvette withwinding apertures and inscribed with movement details, “bombé“ crystal. “Guilloché” silver, at 3 Arabicchapter ring for the regular hours and minutes, at 9 Roman chapter ring for the hour and minute register, outerseconds divisions, at 6 subsidiary seconds dial. Blued steel “fuchsia” hands. 23’’’, frosted gilt, bridge caliber,4 jewels, double barrel with Maltese stopworks, ruby cylinder escapement, gilt 3-arm balance, flat balance-spring,“Parachute” shock-absorber on the top balance pivot, slide button at 6 to activate/deactivate the independentdead center-seconds mechanism controlled by a flirt.Case stamped with Neuchâtel hallmark and French import marks, dial numbered, movement stamped withHouriet’s mark “HF” on the plate under the dial.Diam. 57 mm. Notes w w as a remarkable horologist. He was apprenticed to his uncle, Daniel Gagnebin, at Re-nan, and later to the celebrated Abraham-Louis Perrelet, the in-ventor of the self-winding watch. In 1759, at the age of sixteen, he and his elder brother, an engra-ver, moved to Paris. There he worked for Pierre LeRoy, Jean Romilly and Ferdinand Berthoud. Tradition has it that, while in Paris, he became friendly with Breguet, four years his jun