Ch. H

Ch. H. Grosclaude & Co., Fleurier, circa 1870. Fine 18K gold hunting-cased double-train independent dead seconds, quarter-seconds diablotine watch with 12-hour register and thermometer. Four-body, "bassine et filets", engine-turned, gold hinged cuvette, pin at one o’clock to activate the second train. White enamel, eccentric Roman numeral hour and minute chapter set at 3 o’clock, at 9 o’clock dead seconds register, subsidiary dial for the quarter-seconds diablotine at 6 o’clock, at 12 o’clock the thermometer, outermost, a fifth-seconds track for the independent seconds hand. Blued steel Breguet hands. 45 mm. (20’’’), frosted gilt, 25 jewels, straight line calibrated lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with blued steel Breguet balance spring, independent seconds controlled by extra wheel set on the escape wheel arbor meshing with a dart set on the last arbor of the independent seconds train. Signed on the cuvette. Diam. 56 mm. Notes The cuvette is inscribed with a medal received at the Universal London Exposition in 1862. See also lot No. 48. Ch. H. Grosclaude was the most important chronometer maker in the Val-de-Travers. His reputation was established by his pocket chronometers, and especially by his marine chronometers, a field that not many other Swiss horologists explored. At the London Universal Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, he obtained medals for his watches. He was known to make independent seconds watches based on a special mechanism, in whic