Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, May 11, 2019

LOT 23

MERMOD FRÈRES

CHF 6,000 - 8,000

HKD 48,000 - 64,000 / USD 6,000 - 8,000

Fine, keyless-winding pocket watch with quarter-repeater by two striking Jacquemarts (Jacks); 14K pink gold


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image

Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent

Case: 3

Good

Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense

Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Brand Mermod Freres

Year Circa 1900

Calibre  19’’’, gilded brass, straight-line lever escapement, compensated balance with gold poising screws and blued steel hairspring with terminal curve

Case No.  71 979

Material 14K pink gold

Dimensions Ø 55.3 mm

Signature Case (trademark)

Notes

14K pink gold, hunting-cased, keyless-winding, round-shaped, pocket watch, with subsidiary seconds at 6 and one horological complications: • Quarter-repeater on two steel gongs (activated by the slide at 6 o’clock) leading the two striking Jacks The Jacquemarts (Jacks) are in the habit of Incroyables (the Incredibles) and Merveilleuses (the Marvelous); men’s and women’s costumes, fashionable during the late 1790’s and the Directoire period in France. The Incroyables (the Incredibles) and the Merveilleuses (the Marvelous) After the Thermidor, the French began to rebel against the dress styles traditionally associated with the Revolution, including the sans-culottes, cockades, and tricolour accessories and clothes, and developed new styles, more closely associated with aristocratic fashions prior to the Revolution than to more recent styles. Perhaps the most salient, and also most widely criticized, expression of such fashions was exhibited by les “Incroyables” (the Incredibles) and their female counterparts, “les Merveilleuses” (the Marvelous). The typical outfit of these new dandies consisted of a double-breasted, square jacket, similar to a redingote with cut tails, deformed vest with heavily stuffed pockets, white scarves around the neck, tight-fitting breeches with long ribbons dangling below the knees, and open, pointed flat shoes. The Merveilleuses wore Neoclassical style dresses, with high waists and open necklines, narrow skirts, and often made up of light fabrics such as muslin, to assimilate the style of the mythical females of classical antiquity; their hair was often done in a variety of styles, or covered with the different hats that were popular at the time, including bonnets, toques, turmans, and the popular cornette. Incroyables and Merveilleuses were often criticized for their love of fashion, still associated with the ills of the pre-Revolutionary monarchy, and were the subjects of a wide number of caricatures that exposed them as worthless citizens and women with loose morals. Their style, however, has come to be associated with the fashions of the Directoire and the Empire, with Empress Josephine being one of the most popular Merveilleuses before her marriage to Napoléon. Mermod Frères, Sainte-Croix The “M F / 1816” trademark with a “S” on a cross, all inside a shield, was registered in 1901. This society was created in 1856, 1840, even 1816, according to the sources. The company name is registered in 1881, as makers of watches and music boxes in Sainte-Croix (Vaud); Sainte-Croix was and is the centre of the music box industry. The company won a Third Class medal for finished watches at the National Exhibition in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1881. They manufactured entirely by improved machinery their music boxes. The company registered the trademark “Mira” for music boxes in 1902. The company is also listed for complicated watches, repeaters and chronometers. It still exists in 1925 for horology and “talking machines”. In 1926, the name of the company became “William Mermod”.