Pair-case Watch
Artist
Isaac Soret & Fils
(Geneva, Switzerland; active 1750 - 1795)
Datec. 1765
MediumGold, gilt metal, brass, leather, enamel
Dimensions73 x 55.6 x 25.4 mm
ClassificationsT&E FOR TIMEKEEPING
Credit LineProctor Collection, Frederick T. Proctor Watch Collection
Terms
Object numberPC. 182
DescriptionTwo colored gold, enamel, bezel hinged at 9, movement hinged at 12Enamelled gold calendar watch
Geneva
CASE: bezel enhanced with yellow gold band of leafy scrolls, back panel painted with neo classical scene of two maidens before an alter of love
On View
Not on viewCollections
Copyright<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>.
Label TextIsaac Soret founded a watch making factory in Geneva in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Like many other firms, the company made a variety of watches in different sizes, but it specialized in particular type of watch of standard size. According to Alfred Chapuis and Eugène Jaquet, “In the workshops of Soret and Son, three generations used the same movement of a diameter of 35 mm.” Standardized watches were easier and faster to manufacture to meet the growing demand for fine timepieces.
Managed by his sons and grandson until the end of the 1700s, Soret and Fils also made calendar watches as seen here. The face of this watch has four small dials that, clockwise, show the months of the year, days of the week, hours in the day, and days of the month; a sixty-second ring at the periphery of the face encircles the smaller dials. The scene on the inner case depicts two women dressed in classical garb and holding doves, perhaps in preparation for a sacrificial rite. The bezel on the outer case is decorated with leather secured by brass nails.
