# Need Help Identifying Pocket Watch



## remb1000 (Jan 17, 2012)

Hello

My name is Robert.

I am in search of some expertise regarding an old pocket watch.

The thing is I can't find much information about it's origin or maker.

The casing is 18carat gold.

The engraving on the watch is as follows:

N1810 puis: Louis RABY Hger de l'Empereur nÂ°5 Bvard des Italiens Paris

And there is another number on the outside casing alonh with what I believe is a hallmark stamp.

The number is:

10019

Please can anyone help with perhaps some informaton on this watch?

Kind regards

Robert




























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## Mikrolisk (Jan 23, 2008)

The movement looks a litte bit like Vacheron&Constantin! But I haven't heard of the watchmaker mentioned in the case.

Andreas


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## remb1000 (Jan 17, 2012)

Hello Andreas

i appreciate your help.

I shall look into the info you provided.

The little knowledge I did find indicates that the name engraved on this watch is just the retailers name and address.

Thank you very much


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## zoki (Jan 9, 2012)

it says he was hloger de emperour- emperors watcmaker

then he was quite important and shouldnt be difficult to find

very nice watch


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## dgf67 (Dec 8, 2010)

found this with a quick web search. it came from a old auction

* Lot Notes*

The movement is signed under the dial by L. Raby with a crown, and numbered 966. Loomes and Tardy both list a Louis Raby, on the Bd. des Italiens (succeda a A. Benoit a Versailles) and dates given are 1810 and 1855.

*TWO CLOCK WATCHES*

A striking system originally called "Dutch Striking" was first introduced to clockmaking in 1657-75. In addition to striking the hours of the day on one bell, the "Dutch Strike" also chimed the half hour on two bells; this half-hour strike was a melodious and unusual feature on seventeenth century clocks. This system later developed into the full chiming function that has been called "Grande Sonnerie" since 1700, in which both the hour and the quarter hours are struck every 15 minutes of the day. "Petite Sonnerie" is a simpler variation of the "Grande" in which the quarter hours are struck at the quarters, but the hour is struck only at the o'clock.

As horology progressed to smaller, portable, and more convenient timepieces the Petite and Grande Sonnerie striking system was incorporated first into table clocks and then into carriage clocks, although always as a very expensive and rare feature. Abraham Louis Breguet (1747-1823) is the acknowledged master creationist of small clocks with this complicated feature. For a pocket watch to contain this intricate mechanism requires the superb design and engineering skills of the most accomplished of craftsmen. Two such watchmakers are exhibited here.

Little is known in detail about *Louis Raby*. In the Olivier Collection at the Louvre there is a brass-cased watch signed Rabby a Paris c. 1720, and another similarly signed watch is illustrated in La Montre Francaise. This is presumably Francois Rabby, whose watch in the Guildhall Museum is listed in Baillie as c. 1745. Between Baillie and Tardy and one other spelling variation (Rabi) it can be pieced together that Louis Raby was the third or fourth generation of a watchmaking family working in Paris for approximately a century and a half.

Louis Raby is described by George Daniels in his definitive work The Art of Breguet as being one of Breguet's most talented pupils, surpassing even the Master in the execution of his own pendule sympathique (pg. 90). Raby is known to Tardy for his use of aluminum in a watch c. 1860; aluminum was an extremely rare and difficult metal by nineteenth century standards. Based on the admittedly slim evidence of these two known pieces, it would seem that Louis Raby had a taste for the experimental and the showy. In these terms Lot 206 is a characteristic example of his bravura watchmaking.

*Louis Audemars* (1782-1833) founded his watchmaking firm in 1811 in the Valle de Joux. While no direct link between Louis and A.L. Breguet has been substantiated, Paul Chamberlain in It's About Time credits Mr. Audemars for creating in the Valle de Joux a "last stronghold" for Breguet-inspired "standards of exquisite workmanship and taste for complicated pieces".

Louis Audemars had seven sons. His last son, Charles-Henri, became director of the family business after his father's death. The firm continued to be called "Louis Audemars" until 1885. It was Jules-Louis Audemars, born in 1851, son of Charles-Henri's brother Francois-Louis, who became the founder in 1881 with with Edward-Auguste Piaget of the illustrious eponymous watchmaking firm still in existence today.

Lot 205, dated 1873, must be discussed as the work of that second-generation Audemars, Charles-Henri, or of his atelier. The awards engraved on the cuvette of this watch (listed below) adds important historical information to the little that has been previously documented about this son of Louis, or about the activities of the family firm during this period. That this watch is a perpetuation of the highest quality of watchmaking as established by the firm's founder early in the century is self-evident.

Medals Awarded at the Exhibitions of:

London 1851-1862

New York 1853

Paris 1855

Vienna 1873

1st Prize Medal Awarded at Paris in 1856, 1863

by the French National Academy

Literature

Charles Allix and Peter Bonnert, Carriage Clocks, London, 1974

Daniel Aubert, Montres et Horologers exceptionnels de la Valle de Joux, Neuchatel, 1993

Catherine Cardinal, Catalogue des Montres du Musee du Louvre, Paris, 1984

Paul M. Chamberlain, It's About Time, London, 1978

Adolphe Chapiro, La Montre Francaise, Paris, 1991

Camerer Cuss, Antique Watches, London, 1976

M. Cutmore, Watches 1850-1980, London, 1989

George Daniels, The Art of Breguet, London, 1975

Britten, Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers, New York, 1973

Brunner, Pfieffer-Belli, Wehrli, Audemars Piguet, Munchen, 1993


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## remb1000 (Jan 17, 2012)

Thank you guys for your comments.

Very much appreciated.

For Mr dgf67.

Was it this watch exct watch which you found on a old auction?

And if so do you recall for how much it was sold?

Kindest regards.

And thanks again for such useful information.

Robert Berry


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## dgf67 (Dec 8, 2010)

they didn't have any pictures but it doesn't sound like your watch

* Lot Description*

*RABY* UNUSUAL TWO-TRAIN PETITE AND GRANDE SONNERIE QUARTER REPEATING CLOCK WATCH

c. 1850

*The 18K gold case* marked 965 with ribbed band and two locks, one marked Q/H for petite and grand sonnerie, the other marked S/A for strike and silent, 52mm. diam.

*The later, purpose-made silver dial* (c. 1920s) has subsidiary seconds and radium arabic numerals and hands.

*The two-train jewelled movement* has a lever escapement and a bimetallic balance, repeating on gongs by means of a push button in the pendant, and winds with a male key.

* Price Realized **(Set Currency) *

$4,370


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## remb1000 (Jan 17, 2012)

Thank you my good Sir


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