Description: Gold cased, back wound, gilt brass, full plate double virgule movement of the second transitional type, on the way to the development of the bridged calibre Lépine movement. Very low placed brass balance, steel balance spring at level of the plate. T-shaped bridge holding balance staff equipped with steel cockerel. Big steel regulator hand, regulator index engraved on back plate. Plate signed ‘Lépine hor(lo)ger du Roy A Paris’ and numbered ‘1251’. Movement is not fixed by a hinge but by three steel retaining screws. Later enamelled copper dial, signed ‘L’Epine Horloger du Roy’, later ‘Breguet-hands’. Unsigned gilt brass cuvette.
Additional Info:
This is one of only about 5 surviving watches signed by Lépine, featuring the double virgule escapement as invented by Pierre – Augustin de Beaumarchais.
Antiquarian Horology 
