This watch has a ?mystery? opening feature: only one cover can be opened at a time, due to a special gravitational device that allows only the cover facing upwards to be opened. Thus, when the watch is turned, the cover that had remained closed no matter how much the push-button was depressed, suddenly and ?mysteriously? opens.

Henri-Robert Ekegrén, (1823-1896) The son of Daniel Ekegrén, a Swedish watchmaker, he worked for Jules Jürgensen in in Le Locle, Winnerl in Paris, and Henri Golay in Geneva, where he arrived in 1847. In 1857 he formed a partnership with Ferdinand Westermann. At the 1867 Exhibition, he displayed thirty-six watches, winning a gold medal. Subsequent exhibitions - Vienna in 1873, Paris in 1875, Philadelphia in 1876, Paris again in 1878, and Zurich in 1883 - brought him and his collaborator Louis Chevalier further honors and recognition. See: "Dictionnaire des horlogers genevois" by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, Geneva, 1998.

Oscar II of Sweden and Norway (1829-1907) King of Sweden and Norway, son of Oscar I, born in Stockholm on the 21st of January 1829. He entered the navy at the age of eleven, and was appointed junior lieutenant in July 1845. Later he studied at the university of Upsala, where he distinguished himself in mathematics. In 1857 he married Princess Sophia Wilhelmina, youngest daughter of Duke William of Nassau. He succeeded his brother Charles XV on the 18th of September 1872. He was largly responsible for the peaceful solution eventually adopted for the separation of the Crown. His acute intelligence and his aloofness from the dynastic considerations affecting most European sovereigns gave the King considerable weight as an arbitrator in international questions. He won many friends in England by his outspoken and generous support of Great Britain at the time of the Boer War (1899-1902), expressed in a declaration printed in The Times on the 2nd of May 1900. Himself a distinguished writer and musical amateur, King Oscar proved a geneous friend of learning and did much to encourage the development of education throughout his dominions. In 1858 a collection of his lyrical and narrative poems, Memorials of the Swedish Fleet, published anonymously, obtained the second prize of the Swedish Academy. His "Contributions to the Military History of Sweden in the Years 1711, 1712, 1713," originally appeared in the Annals of the Academy, and were printed separately in 1865. His book ?Memoirs of Charles XII? were translated into English in 1879. His eldest son, Oscar Gustavus Adolphus, Duke of Warmland (b. 1858), succeeded him as King Gustavus V.

Raoul Gunsbourg (1859-1955). French composer and impresario of Romanian birth. After managing opera in Russia (from 1881) and in Lille (1888?9) and Nice (1889?91), he became director of the Monte Carlo Opera in 1893, a position he held until 1951. Under his long and brilliant régime Monte Carlo saw the premieres of many important works.