THURET, Paris

Gilt metal onion watch Case on hinge (missing pin), the caseband decorated and chiseled with scrolls and flower motifs, the back richly decorated with a mythological scene with cherubs, foliage and acanthus leaves. Dial finely hammered with enamel cartridges, Roman numerals for the hours and Arabic for the minutes, enamel minute track in a circle, decorated with stylized volutes in the center. Mechanical movement with key winding, chased and pierced cock, spiral balance, regulation disc, verge escapement, fusee and chain, signature on the plate "Thuret à Paris". Diam. 57,5 mm The Thuret dynasty marked the history of watchmaking, notably with Isaac Thuret who was chosen to make the first regulating spiral balance following the discovery of Christian Huyguens in 1675. History will remember that he presented this invention as his own and had to apologize to its inventor, Christian Huyguens. After having been Watchmaker of the King and Watchmaker of the Observatory of Paris, he died in 1706. His son Jaques-Augustin (1669 - 1739) who is undoubtedly the watchmaker who realized our example will also be Watchmaker of the King at the Galleries of the Louvre, his engraved portrait is illustrated in the Dictionnaire des Horlogers Français, p. 615, Tardy.