Lot 426

Inventato & Fatto da Alessandrio Menu in Genevra No. 1451 6/5 1, 50 mm, 109 g, circa 1780
An exquisite and impressive double-sided gold enamel pocket watch with day and night indications, calendar and cylinder escapement
Case: 20k gold and polychrome enamel. Dial: enamel and gold. Movm.: full plate movement, keywind, chain/fusee.
The bezels on front and back are both decorated with multi-coloured summer flowers and foliage scrolls of translucent enamel. The front of the watch shows the calendar and the day and night indication, which is divided in 2 x 12 hours in red and black numerals. Three auxiliary chapter rings indicate the day of the week, the month and the current date. A particular detail is the display of the hours and minutes on the back of the watch: white enamel cartouches on chased gold ground with enamelled signature cartouches in the centre. A second signature sits on the inner edge of the watch. The records state that Alexandre Menu invented and created this timepiece in Geneva.
Unfortunately we know only very little about Alexandre Menu, apart from the fact that he was a watchmaker in Geneva in the late 18th century. Osvaldo Patrizzi’s Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois lists two timepieces by Menu - the watch we have here and another, a finely painted Louis XVI gold and enamel watch.