(*) Ulysse Nardin Locle & Genève "Chronométre", Movement No. 16856, Case No. 10508, 55 mm, 127 g, circa 1905

A very fine and important minute repeating hunting case pocket watch with Westminster carillon - with original box Case: 18k gold, engine-turned, à goutte, numbered and signed gold dome, slide for repeating mechanism. Dial: enamel, Arabic numerals, auxiliary seconds, blued Breguet hands. Movm.: bridge movement, rhodium-plated, ground, 4 hammers, 4 gongs, gold screw compensation balance. Westminster Carillon Watches with a carillon minute repeating mechanism are an extremely rare find; there are only very few pieces known today that have Westminster chimes or four hammers. The design was patented as patent no. 11948 on March 20, 1896, by Constant Piguet. The two other makers who were known to have specialized in this type of watch were Eduard JeanRichard and Victorin Piguet and tothe best of our knowledge only three tunes were played by the four hammer carillons - Westminster chimes, the Swiss National anthem and God Save the King. To be absolutely correct, the Westminster chimes should actually be called Cambridge Chimes, because they were first used in 1793 at St. Mary's Church in Cambridge. They were co-written by Rev.Dr. Joseph Jowett and Dr. John Randall and the undergraduate student William Crotch, who would later become the first principal of the Royal Academy of Music. Lord Grimthorpe later used the tune for his great bell (nicknamed "Big Ben") of the clock he designed at the north end of the Palace of Westminster. The chimes are supposedly a variation of a phrase from Handel's Messiah. Cond.: Case: very good. Dial: very good. Movm.: very good, capable of running, cleaning recommended.