Cartier & Mourier Enamel Quarter Repeater Pocket Watch

Inventory number: PW1809008

Circa 1770, 52mm, 18K gold case with polychrome enamel scene depicting a shepherdess with a boy and a sheep in a landscape. 

Functions: hours, minutes, and quarter repeating.

Watchmaking Glossary

It is commonly thought that the repeating mechanism was discovered simultaneously around 1685, by two London watchmakers: Edward Barlow (1636-1716) and Daniel Quare (1649-1724). They both claimed to be the inventor and tried to protect their patent by applying for a royal patent. King James II (1633-1701), King of England, Ireland, and Scotland (1685-1688) decided in favor of Quare’s device. （Mainly because Quare’s device just needs to press one pendant while Barlow’s device needs two push-buttons to activate the mechanism.）

Quarter Repeating: strikes the hour and quarter-hour on demand, usually use low-tone(dong) sound to indicate the hour and a sequence of two tones ("ding-dong") to indicate the quarters.

Glossary of Material Terms

Enamel

A vitreous substance whose main component is silica mixed with oxides (transition metals) that create a vast palette of colors. Enamel is used to decorate metal surfaces, gold, silver, and copper.

Painting on the Enamel

A gold or copper plate is coated with base enamel then fired. The colors are in powder form which the enamel-painter dilutes as and when they are needed using an oily or semi-oily essence, before applying them with a fine brush. Each color is dried then fired before the next is applied. A work can be fired numerous times.