Chinese Market watches were first produced in England and, from the third quarter of the 18th century, they started being made in Switzerland. However, Swiss makers, such as Jagnet-Droz, who did not have the facilities for selling watches directly on the Chinese Market, had to go through agents which more often than not, were established in England. Later the Swiss did set themselves up in such a way that they were finally able to by-pass the agents and sell directly to China. Certainly the Swiss were good salesmen and they explained to the Chinese that since China was so far away from Switzerland, it would be best to purchase the watches in pairs so that when one needed to be sent back to the maker for repair or overhaul, they could use the other one in the meantime. Therefore, whether they were simple silver watches or more prestigious executions, Chinese Market watches were always sold in pairs. The more prestigious of these watches were generally purchased by dignitaries, and they were also made to be offered by sovereigns travelling to China, or to be presented to Chinese noblemen upon their visit to Europe. Chinese Market watches presented on such occasions were of great splendour since highly important commercial agreements were at stake between Europe and China. As for a good many objects of art of Chinese origin, such as a gold and enamelled musical snuff-box by Recordon & Dupont sold by Antiquo-um in Hong Kong in June 1996, most of the prestigious Chinese Market watches that can now be found in the West were brought back by soldiers following two major military operations. The first event was in 1858 and led to the Occupation of Peking on October 13th, 1860, after the Victory of Pa-Li Kiao (Palikao) on September 21st of that year and the sack of the Summer Palace. At that time, the Summer Palace or "Yuan Ming Yuan " , originally built by Jesuits at the beginning of the 18th century, was entirely stripped of its treasures in revenge for the tortures inflicted on Europeans. Later, other valuable objects were looted by the troops of the international expeditionary force sent to crush the Boxers revolt. These troops, under the commandment of the German General Von Waldersee, were made up of French, English, Germans, Italians, Austrians, Russians, Americans, and Japanese. After the storming of Tien-Tsin, on July 14th, 1900, allied troops entered Peking freeing the foreign legations and put to flight the Empress Ts ' Eu-Hi. It is during these events, that the largest number of objects were taken out of China. It is therefore not surprising that it is rare today to find Chinese Market watches as pairs given that the majority of such watches brought back to the West following these events were divided up after the lootings. Furthermore, the few Chinese Market watches that did manage to return safely to Europe as pairs, were later split up for inheritance purposes.