An 18-carat gold hunter-cased, minute-repeating automaton pocket watch, signed and numbered LeCoultre nr. 1974, c. 1900. The plain polished case has a repeater slide in the band. The translucent enamel centred dial over an engine-turned sunburst motif has Roman numerals, spade gilt hands, and a separate seconds dial. To the sides there are two multi-coloured Jacquemarts (‘striking Jacks’) on a gilt brass background. They are depicted as guards of the Vatican. The movement is glazed and rhodium-plated. It has fausses-côtes decoration, screwed gold chatons, wolf-teeth winding wheels, and a gold-screw compensation balance. The signature is behind the hour hammer. The watch comes with its original mahogany box. • Diameter: 52mm. • The maker, Elie LeCoultre (1842-1917), was the son of Antoine LeCoultre (1803-1881), who in 1833, following his invention of a machine to cut watch pinions from steel, founded a small watchmaking workshop in Le Sentier. In 1844, he invented the world's most precise measuring instrument, the millionomètre, and in 1847 he created the keyless winding system. In 1866 Antoine and Elie established the Vallée de Joux’s first full-fledged manufacture, LeCoultre & Cie., pooling their employees’ expertise under one roof. Under this set-up, they developed in 1870 the first partially mechanized production processes for complicated movements. By the same year, the Manufacture employed 500 people and was known as the Grande Maison of the Vallée de Joux, and by 1900, it had created over 350 different calibers, of which 128 were equipped with chronograph functions and 99 with repeater mechanisms. From 1902 and for the next 30 years, LeCoultre & Cie. produced most of the movement blanks for Patek Philippe of Geneva. In 1903 Edmond Jaeger, a Paris-based watchmaker to the Navy, became involved in the company and from 1937 it was renamed Jaeger Lecoultre.