Dial and edge of the cuvette signed L. Leroy, Paris, case and dial plate numbered 11820. DIAM. 55 mm. First Time at Auction Property of the Original Family of the Recipient Alphonse of Bourbon and Habsburg -Loraine was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. Posthumous son of Alphonse XII , Alphonse XII was immediately proclaimed King under the Regency of his mother, Maria-Christina of Habsburg-Lorraine-Teschen. In May 1906, the King married Scottish-born Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (1887-1969), the daughter of Princess Beatrice - the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Due to family ties on both sides, King Alphonse kept his kingdom neutral in World War I (1914-1918). During that war he established a humanitarian office for assistance to prisoners of war on all sides and civilian relief at the Royal Palace in Madrid. The office provided relief to more than 200,000 prisoners- of-war and evacuated nearly 70,000 civilians from unsafe zones. The Spanish Royal family went into exile on April 14th, 1931 "suspending the exercise of Royal power" after municipal elections brought Republicans to power. Alphonse XII remained in exile in Rome during the Spanish civil war (1936-1939), since General Franco would not allow him to return to his beloved country. Shortly before his death, on January 15th, 1941, the King abdicated his rights to the Spanish throne in favor of his son Juan, the father of King Juan Carlos I, who abdicated in June 2014 in favor of his son King Felipe VI of Spain (born 1968). Completely fresh to the market and offered here for the first time at auction, the present watch has until now always remained in the family of the first Count Santamaria de Paredes since it was presented to him by King Alphonse XII of Spain. The watch also remains in exceptionally good condition with very crisp case, perfect enamel dial and movement of the highest grade with gold wheel train. This extremely rare and highly complicated watch can be confidently attributed to the House of Louis Audemars by comparing it to two near-identical watches illustrated in Louis-Benjamin Audemars, Hartmut Zantke, 2003; No. 53, Grande Complication (double dialed) known as Leroy 1 and No. 17, L'Universelle (double dialed). The dial design with Réaumur thermometer is also quite distinctively Louis Audemars, as is the repeat-slide with concave depression and the escapement fork with "shepherd's crook" counterpoise. In addition to four signed highly complicated watches, Louis Audemars also made around eight unsigned "Grandes Complications" which were sold to other watchmakers and signed and sold by them, several of these are, like the present watch and the "Leroy 1", are signed by Leroy. Unlike most of the known Louis Audemars "Grandes Complications" the present watch has a true chronograph mechanism with castle wheel mounted on the dial plate. The chronograph does not have a heart-piece for return-to-zero function but both the main hand and split hand can be fully stopped. By depressing the button in the crown the first hand stops, upon pressing a second time the other hand stops, the the hands rejoin by pressing the button again and the jumping seconds continue with both hands together in the manner of center-seconds. The Réaumur scale also known as the "octogesimal division" is a temperature scale in which the freezing and boiling points of water are set to 0 and 80 degrees respectively. The scale is named after René Antoine Ferchault de Rèaumur, who first designed something similar in 1730. THE COMPLICATIONS ? 2nd Time Zone ? Chronograph ? Split-seconds ? Minute repeating ? Moon phases & age ? Rèaumur thermometer ? Perpetual calendar ? Date ? Days of the week ? Months ? Diablotine Count Vicente Santamaria de Paredes (1853-1924), Spanish lawyer and politician, professor of Political Law, Senator for Life, Academician, was appointed by the Queen Regent Marie-Christine of Habsburg-Lorraine- Teschen, Archduchess of Austria in 1901 as tutor and professor in law and social sciences to her son King Alphonse XIII (1886-1941), with particular reference to constitutional, administrative and international law, political economy and finance. On 26th June 1920, following an unanimous proposal made by the faculty of Law of Madrid University, the King granted him the title Count Santamaria de Paredes "as reward of a long life of important and multiple services given to the science and to the state" The monarch showed great affection towards Santamaria and presented to him this important pocket watch and a photo with his dedication "in proof of fondness of his constitutional loving disciple".