Horloger de la Marine Chronograph

This chronograph was sold in Paris around 1910, when Charles Oudin was trading from 17 avenue de l'Opéra, and it has kept the box it left the shop in. The fitted case is covered in blue leather with a gilt-tooled edge, and the silk inside the lid is printed Charles Oudin, Horloger de la Marine, 17. Avenue de l'Opéra, Paris. On the lid, worn almost flat, are the stamped initials J.B. The same two letters are worked in dark blue enamel at the centre of the caseback, interlaced inside a ring. Box and watch were made up for one owner, and they are still together.

The case is 18ct gold, open face and 46.7mm across, a slim dress size for a chronograph. It is plainly finished, with a polished bezel and back, a round bow and a fluted crown, and the chronograph is controlled from a button in the crown, so nothing breaks the line of the band.

The dial has an even champagne tone. Its black Breguet numerals keep the style of the house's founder, who learnt his trade with Breguet, and "Ch. Oudin à Paris" runs in script across the centre, split either side of the hands. The 30-minute register sits at twelve and the small seconds at six, inside an outer track to sixty for the chronograph. The hour and minute hands are blued Breguet hands with open moon tips, and the centre chronograph hand is blued to match, finished with a ring counterweight. The whole dial is laid out to be read at a glance: large numerals, two clean registers and nothing else.

Inside the back, the gold cuvette is engraved with the house's number, name, title and address, set out as they appear inside the box. Beneath it, the chronograph works are laid across the back of the movement in polished steel, with jewelled wheels and long, finely shaped levers. Oudin cased the movement in Swiss gold and signed the watch on the dial, the cuvette and the box, the three places the owner would see.

It is in excellent order. The watch runs, and the chronograph starts, stops and resets as it should.

The marks, the movement and the condition are set out in the drawers below, and the signatures and box in The Record.