Pierre & Achille Benoit à Versailles

A FINE AND RARE GOLD LEVER CHRONOGRAPH WATCH WITH DEAD CENTRAL DEAD SECONDS AND JUMPING FIFTHS WITH INDEPENDENT SECONDS STOP SLIDE BEGUN CIRCA 1808, COMPLETED CIRCA 1840, NO.216

• Movement: gilded ½ plate, lever escapement, bi-metallic compensation balance with moveable wedge shaped weights, parachute suspension, large central wheel mounted to the backplate engaging with a spring to the side set with an asymmetrically wedge-shaped jewel to control the jumping centre seconds, fusee and chain, signed and numbered A. Benoit à Versailles
• Dial: white enamel, Roman numerals, outer ring for minutes/seconds with Arabic numerals at the quarter hours, gold moon hands, blued steel jumping centre seconds, sunken subsidiary dial with jumping 5ths, signed A. Benoit à Versailles
• Case: pink gold, engine-turned back centred with a polished roundel with blue enamel monogram, milled band, slide beneath 6 o'clock to start/stop centre and jumping seconds, further slide to case side between 2 and 3 o'clock to reveal hand-set square, back numbered 836 and with maker's mark AG beneath a star for Ami Gros, plain polished gold cuvette with aperture for winding
• Chain: with short chain and double ended ratcheted winding/hand-setting key
diameter 53mm

Provenance:
Antiquorum Geneva, 14 November 2004, lot 13