Lot 363

Henry Robert, Horloger de la Marine, Paris, 68 x 68 x 25 mm, 153 g, circa 1830
An unusual early stopwatch
Case: walnut. Dial: silvered. Movm.: full plate movement, going barrel, verge escapement, three-arm brass balance.
This is a truly remarkable early stop watch with a verge escapement by ingenious watchmaker Henry Robert (1795-1874); he had trained with Breguet and Laresche and later taken over Laresche’s business in Paris. The 2 mm dial is authentic and heavily darkened, which hints at the long history of this timepiece. The watch has a minute and second indicator without return to zero; time is counted as long as the pusher on the left is pressed. What looks like another pusher on the right is really a removable winding key.