18K Gold, Guilloché Enamel Both Faces

No name appears anywhere on this watch, and the case makes its argument on its own. It is solid 18K gold, 38mm and a full 42 grams of it, and it is decorated on both faces rather than the usual one. The back carries a fan of vertical engine-turned panels bordered in cobalt blue and white enamel, framed in chased gold scrollwork and topped by an oval cartouche; turn to the front and the same blue and white enamel runs around the bezel under pierced gold scrollwork, so the watch presents a finished face whichever way it lies. In researching this piece, no comparable example was found decorated to this standard on both sides.

The dial keeps the theme, in three textures. The centre is a basin of fine concentric engine-turned circles inside a beaded ring, the numeral ring is frosted matte gold carrying tall, stylised black Arabic figures of the Art Nouveau years, and the sub-seconds at six is turned in the same concentric rings. Over it all sit blued steel Breguet hands with the open ring near the tip: a dial made by the same instinct that decorated the case, with nowhere left plain that could be worked.

The watch is keyless, wound and set entirely through the crown, and it winds smoothly, sets correctly and runs well. The rose-toned pendant and bow sit warmly against the yellow gold of the body, and at 38mm it wears as easily on a chain as it sits in a pocket.

Enamel fired over engine-turning is fragile by nature, and both faces of this case have come through more than a century without a chip, a crack or a fade. That is the whole story of the watch: no famous name, and nothing to apologise for anywhere on it.

The marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the enamel work is shown close in The Enamel.