The Louis Audemars Extract from the Archives, dated September 2018, mentioned that this watch appears in a full-page entry in a "Register of Superior Watches". Production was started on February 24, 1873. The Register shows the dates and the costs of the various operations, the names of the operatives and outworkers who worked on the movement and the WEIGHT and cost of the gold and other metals used. Final regulation of the movement was made by Jules Reymond on April 13, 1875. The case was made by Meylan Frères and supplied on May 8, 1875. The final cost of production was 1 178.10 Francs. The watch was shipped to Louis Audemars' Russia stock on May 29, 1876. It's also appears in the inventory, dated June 30, 1880, of Audemars' Eastern Europe agent M. Jules Jaques showing that seven years after the start of its manufacture, it remained unsold, with a stock value of 2 500.- Francs. The Breguet Certificate, mentioned that this watch was completed on September 5, 1885, and delivered on December 29, 1885, for the amount of 2 500 francs, to Messieurs Mir et Cottereau, their agent in Constantinople (Istanbul) for the Islamic market at the end of the 19th century. Clearly the watch had at some time been recovered from the Eastern European stock by the Audemars family and was sold during the liquidation process to Breguet during the three months after the bankruptcy of the Louis Audemars enterprise. One of the smallest repeating pocket watches with perpetual calendar ever made The present watch can be considered exceptional as one of, if not the smallest pocket watch ever made with perpetual calendar and repeating. The desire to miniaturise timepieces is an ideal inherent to the watchmaker's art. The present watch must represent what was an unparalleled accomplishment at its time of manufacture. Much smaller watches are known to exist, however one of 13''' with perpetual calendar, phases of the moon and repetition would have been unheard-of. The firm of Louis Audemars was well known for their ability to create movements of great complexity; this watch is an extraordinary example of their art combining complexity and miniaturisation and would have surely been the smallest watch of its type in 1873. No other 13''' or smaller watches with the same complications are known to have been manufactured until the 1930's. Bibliography Zantke, Hartmut, Louis-Benjamin Audemars his Life and Work, the Rise and Fall of a Watchmaking Dynasty, Leonberg, Sozialkartei-Verlag, 2003 (507 pp.), p. 180, 335 (No. 62). Audemars' perpetual calendar with leap-years display This type of perpetual calendar with the indication of the exact duration of each month for the 48 months of the cycle, including February 29 every four years, is designed and developed since 1860 by Charles-Henri Audemars (1829-1906), the youngest son of the watchmaker's founder. It then replaces the pocket watches with retrograde perpetual calendar (more delicate of use and more expensive in manufacturing cost) - of which Eugène-Constant Lecoultre (1819-1882) made a specialty in Geneva - and is essential little by little throughout the watch industry. This new perpetual calendar mechanism is extensively described and illustrated in the Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie (Swiss Journal of Watchmaking) in July 1885, allowing all watchmakers to build such a watch. This system which is said to be traînant (dragging) is then improved with the invention in 1889 of the instantaneous and simultaneous jump of the calendar-discs by the Genevan manufacture Patek, Philippe & Co. (Swiss invention Paten.. 1 018, of May 23, 1889). Louis Audemars House, Jules Jaques and the Imperial Austrian and Russian Markets Circa 1865, discussions were held with a relative of the Audemars family, M. Jules Jaques, who represented the great watchmaking house of Mermod Frères of Sainte-Croix (Neuchâtel Canton) in Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russian Empire. An arrangement was concluded by which M. Jaques would take charge of a stock depot of Louis Audemars watches for sale in these areas and which because of their higher prices, would not compete with the lower value products of Mermod Frères. The sale of their watches in Eastern Europe produced a great bonus for the Louis Audemars business, because watches sold there had (by law) to carry the maker's name. This was a magnificent advertisement for them, the effects of which were soon apparent. Because they continued to apply the same rigorous principles (of quality) in their production as before, the retailers of watches very soon realised the value of their products and could recommend them with confidence. That resulted in important orders from many members of the Russian Aristocracy. The distribution of these watches carrying the Louis Audemars signature also produced repercussions in other European capitals where comparisons could be made (with other products). Business in Austria and Russia prospered for about a decade under the management of Jules Jaques, but it began to wane when he went back to live in Geneva after the Universal Vienna Exhibition of 1873. He went to those countries twice a year, but the journeys became increasingly sporadic, which doubtless upset his customers. He then had the unhappy idea of replacing the stock of good watches from Mermod Frères with others he bought in or had made for him. This upset his customers even more and placed him in direct competition with the Mermod salesmen. Little by little, he lost his quality customers which were replaced by second rate buyers who insisted on long credit, increasing the probabilities of losses and the claims and actions consequent upon them. Disorder, fatigue and his advancing age meant that the excellent sales of Audemars watches between 1870 and 1880 in these two immense countries had been greatly reduced by the time of the liquidation in 1885. Louis Audemars House and Breguet House After a few years of intense collaboration started circa 1876-1877, on September 20, 1881, the house Breguet officially enters in association with the house Audemars, under the commercial reason "Louis Audemars et Brown, fabricant d'horlogerie (maison Breguet), 12, rue de la Paix, Paris", "société en nom collectif" (partnership); this for the commercial exploitation of watches, mainly in France. Louis-Clément Breguet (1804-1883), grand-son of Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747-1823), has in fact ceded since 1870 the direction of the watchmaking branch of the house to Edouard Brown (1829-1895), an English active at Breguet since 1855, became his workshop chief. This association takes place under the auspices of the Union Vaudoise du Crédit, which then lends the sum of 250 000 Francs; the house of Brassus providing a guarantee of 150 000 Francs in watches at the Parisian house. On the one hand, if this new business is flourishing, it forces, on the other, the watchmakers in the Vallée de Joux to reduce their production to their other deposits and customers. After the bankruptcy of the Vaudois in 1885, the Parisian house will be forced to repay the Swiss bank. This association is officially dissolved on June 21, 1886. Our watch, featuring the famous leap-year perpetual calendar, is a beautiful testimony of this page of forgotten history of these two great houses.