Swiss

A SMALL GOLD OVAL PENDANT WATCH WITH VISIBLE BALANCE CIRCA 1810

• Movement: gilded full plate, cylinder escapement, plain balance, diamond-set balance visible through dial, unsigned
• Dial: oval, blue enamel ground heightened with engraved gold scrolling foliage and a pair of birds above the time dial, large aperture for the visible balance with opaque white enamel border, white enamel dial with Arabic numerals, outer minute ring, aperture for winding beneath
• Case: oval case, pink gold bezels, yellow gold decoratively engraved case back
length including pendant 36mm, width 18mm

Provenance:
From the late 18th century, there was a great fashion for incorporating watches into various other accessories. Watches might appear in snuffboxes or walking canes or sometimes fans or opera glasses. Likewise, although ring watches had been around since the 16th century, they became fashionable once again around this time and we see the appearance of small sized pendant watches such as the present lot; usually oval or rectangular, such watches were frequently embellished with pearls or small diamonds. Often the dial was arranged to one side, in order for the balance to remain visible.