Tourbillon regulators fitted to sonnerie movements are exceptionally rare. Some were made by icole ielsen for important English retailers such as Player or Benson; others are Swiss, made in the Vallée de Joux. One of these was made by Patek Philippe with a Victorin Piguet ebauche with trip minute-repeating and tourbillon very similar to the present watch. This was the famous "Packard" watch, ordered from Patek Philippe by James Ward Packard, the automobile manufacturer. R. Meiss confirms that he movement was made by Victorin Piguet and the carriage by James Pellaton see "Le Tourbillon", p. 177. Also attributable to Victorin Piguet, the present watch incorporates a grande et petite sonnerie clockwatch and minute repeating. It implements Henri Golay's 1859 invention for striking watches with a minute-repeating mechanism, and in addition employs the tandem winding invented by Sylvain Mairet. The carriage was made by Albert Pellaton-Favre and his son James. Thus, this watch was made by two of the greatest in their fields at the time. Victorin Piguet was the leading maker of complicated movements, the Pellatons were the leading makers of tourbillon carriages. Victorin Piguet 1850-1937 Founded his firm, "V. Piguet et Frères" in Geneva in 1880, and returned to his native Vallée de Joux three years later. He specialized in highly complicated horological pieces. In 1920, Victorin's sons Jean and Paul Piguet continued the firm under the name "Les Fils de Victorin Piguet". The company specialized in all the complications of the time: minute repeating, grande sonnerie, chronographs and split-seconds chronographs, watches with date, moon phases, sun rise and setting, equation of time alarm and sidereal time watches. ikolaij icholas and Pawel Paul Tchétounoff Had a business in Moscow at Isterijskij Perelok. Some of their watches have an inscription referring to a branch in Le Locle. However, most likely they were dealing with a Swiss company or companies from Le Locle. Albert Pellaton-Favre 1832-1914 A native of Le Locle, he was a fine constructor of tourbillons. Born Frederick Albert Pellaton, he used the name of Albert Pellaton-Favre, adjoining his wife's name to his own, as was the custom. Pellaton-Favre is known as one of the principal constructors of tourbillon chronometer watches of the 19th century, having made over 80 of them. In 1905 he was awarded the first prize in the First Class for pocket watches at the euchâtel Observatory. He is said to have executed the tourbillon work and scapements for the Paul Ditisheim chronometer which took first place in the Kew Observatory contests of 1903, as well as some for ardin, and one for Golay Fils and Stahl, a chronometer with tourbillon, which won second prize at the 1907 Chronometric contest. The clockmaking dynasty founded by Albert Pellaton-Favre lasted another generation, through his son James Casar Pellaton. Literature . "Montres et Horlogers exceptionnels de la Vallée de Joux", by Daniel Aubert, Editions Antoine Simonin, euchâtel, 1993.