A solid eighteen carat yellow gold Art Deco mechanically made watch.  This is an exceptional and possibly unique jeweller made wrist watch.  One must remember that at the time this watch was made, the wrist watch, that we very much take for granted today, was very much in its infancy.  Therefore the ability of the limited number of established watch makers to keep up with the growing demand was severely inhibited.  As a result some high end jewellers in Europe embarked on their own watch case making.  This would not have been a big departure for the many highly skilled and creative bench goldsmiths working in workshops at the time.  A brief to design a stylish frame within which a basic ebauche, which could be purchased from one of the many Swiss movement makers, could beautifully sit would not have been a problem. However, as is the case with many watches, even today, the end resulsts are rarely as beautiful as this.

The stunning stepped, scallop shaped case, with its fan like top and bottom, house a stylish guilloche centered dial that has beautiful Arabic printed dial, and blued steel classic syringe style hands point out the time in a very elegant way.  It is very obvious that this watch was made by a jeweller, as opposed to a watch case maker as it really defines what we were seeing across architecture, industrial design and jewellery at this time.  The manacles of classic watch case design feel very much removed here.  Another beautiful feature to this watch, which likely pre-dates Role'x hooded lug bubble back watches, is the hooded lug case design. The watch therefore seems to float effortlessly on the wrist.

The watch is powered by a beautifully Geneva striped, manually wound, movement.  This is a Swiss made simple but reliable ebauche would have been a higher grade movement than your average.

The watch has a French makers mark of "LH" stamped onto the inside which we have not yet been able to identify.  The watch appears to be on its original brown sueded hand stitched band featuring its beautifully hand-made solid eighteen carat yellow gold buckle complete with French assay marks.  If you are looking for absolute elegance in watch design, and for something that will allow you to be unique in a world where everyone is clamoring to be unique, then look no further than this impressive piece of design history.  

The watch recently featured on the wrist of Kevin Costner for the July issue of GQ Magazine.