COURVOISIER & Comp

No. 29458 Gold watch with "wandering hours" hour and minute display Round hinged case, guilloche back and caseband, gilt metal bowl with initials in English letters, time setting and key winding. Painted dial depicting a young woman dressed in antique style, holding a letter in her hand, a dog with a basket in its mouth at her feet, rotating disc for displaying the hours on a minute scale in an aperture. Mechanical movement with key winding, three-armed spiral balance, advance and delay setting hand. Diameter 57 mm Gross weight. 143.4 g Courvoisier & Cie. Watchmakers quoted in the Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois, la " fabrique " et les arts annexes du XVIe siècle à nos jours, p. 145, by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions. This "wandering hour" watch illustrates a former time reading system using rotating discs developed almost 400 years ago by the Campani brothers for a papal commission. Few examples like this one have survived to the present day. The working principle seems complicated to interpret because the dial does not have the usual appearance. However, it is not difficult to read. A disc indicates the hours and moves along the minute scale. When it reaches the end of the track, the disc for the next hour appears and replaces it. This was a feat developed by leading watchmakers like Courvoisier & Comp.