12,980 CHF
“Pouzait Escapement” Breguet et Fils, Swiss, circa 1810. Very fine and rare 18K gold, dead centerseconds pocket watch with Pouzait escapement and quarter repeating. Three-body, “Directoire”, entirely engine-turned, gilt cuvette. Notes Pouzait Escapement During the last quarter of the 18th century, several watchmakers tried to produce watches with dead center-seconds hands, much in favor among the scientific community and on the Chinese market. The attempt made by Moïse Pouzait featured a lever escapement associated with a large seconds-beating balance. Due to its spectacular aspect, and in spite if its inertia sensitivity, Pouzait's escapement was much appreciated by the Chinese, before the invention by Jacot of the so-called “Chinese duplex” escapement, enabling the production of dead center-seconds watches. In 1786 Pouzait made a model of his escapement which he presented to the Geneva Société des Arts, and which can still be seen in their collection. Pouzait (1743-1793) In 1786 Jean Moïse Pouzait presented a model of his lever escapement to the Geneva Society of Arts. The idea seems to derive from the pin-wheel escapement in clocks and as in the pin-wheel there was no safety action (later ones, including these two, have the safety action). There are some differences, however: Pouzait's pallets are not just pins, they are small pin-like rectangular teeth, so in fact it is an escapement with divided lift. Pouzait, who eleven years earlier had invented the independent
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2006-11-12
