2820 - Rare pocket watch from the Le Locle watchmaking school, chronograph with jumping minute counter, circa 1920.

Rare pocket watch from the Le Locle watchmaking school, chronograph with jumping minute counter, circa 1920. 900 silver with niello decoration. 52.5 mm. Provenance: 1723, reverse depicting St George fighting the dragon; cases in niello silver were typical of Swiss watchmaking-school watches of this period Exhibited: Very well-preserved white enamel dial with original blued hands Exhibited: Very fine 19-ligne chronograph movement no. 1723, ‘Le Phare’ calibre, with lever escapement, compensated screw balance, Breguet overcoil, swan-neck fine adjustment and Geneva-stripe decoration None Henri Gerber, later technical director at Omega in Biel from 1928 to 1965, made his pocket chronograph in 1919 during his watchmaking apprenticeship at the Le Locle watchmaking school. Its movement was identical in construction to that of the present watch and it was presumably his journeyman’s or master’s piece (source: Dix Ecoles de Horlogerie, p. 233). Under his direction, Omega launched numerous new and innovative watches and constructions, including the accurate and reliable calibre 30T2 wristwatch movement, highly prized by collectors, and Omega’s automatic movements with bumper winding systems, which proved highly successful.