JULES JURGENSEN. AN IMPORTANT AND PROBABLY UNIQUE FINE LEVER WATCH DISPLAYING DECIMAL TIME MADE FOR THE 1867 PARIS EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE 1865
US$12,000 - US$15,000
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Find your local specialistJULES JURGENSEN. AN IMPORTANT AND PROBABLY UNIQUE FINE LEVER WATCH DISPLAYING DECIMAL TIME MADE FOR THE 1867 PARIS EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE
Movement: Gilt bridge pattern jeweled to the third wheel, key wound and set, counterpoised long lever escapement, bi metallic balance, overcoiled spring, regulator index on center bridge, no. 10293
Dial: White enamel, outer 100 minute ring enclosing 10 hour roman chapters, subsidiary 100 seconds dial, blued Breguet hands, no. 10293
Case: Plain polished with gold hinges, signed cuvette, signed by the casemaker, Ed. Jacot, no. 10293
Signed: Case, dial and movement
Size: 55mm
Accompaniments: A copy of the Jurgensen ledger page documenting the workers who made the watch in 1865 for the 1867 Paris Exposition.
Footnotes
Decimal time was adopted in France in September 1794, a few years after the Revolution, but. its mandatory use was suspended in less than a year in April 1795. It was one part of a movement in revolutionary France to rationalize measurement by employing decimal divisions of many quantities. The metric system is its most successful result along with decimal currency. Both decimal time and a decimal calendar failed. Useful to some degree for precise measurement in science and astronomy, it proved merely confusing in everyday life.
An exceedingly small number of decimal timepieces were made in France at the end of the 18th century and the surviving examples are rare. During the late 19th century, there were several proposals for its reintroduction, but none were long lasting. The present watch is clearly an exhibition piece promoting an idea the was clever in theory but not practical in daily life. It is a remarkable example highlighting the abilities of the Jurgensen workshop.
Prominently illustrated and described in Die Taschenuhrensammlung von Gerd Ahrens, by Christian Pfeiffer-Belli (editor), p. 456, vol. 2
