Musical pocket watch with automata "the fountain"

A delightful Swiss musical pocket watch with animated automata, produced by Reuge of Sainte-Croix, the foremost name in the tradition of mechanical musical horology.

The gold-plated hunter-case watch, gilt to 10 microns over engine-turned sides, opens to reveal a printed pastoral dial: a sunlit landscape with a lakeside château and trees forms the backdrop for three-dimensional applied gold-tone automata figures. A falconer on horseback and a lady standing at a column fountain are depicted in the foreground, with a dog and a market basket completing the rustic scene. When the cylinder musical movement is activated, the figures animate in concert with the melody: the horse's head moves, the falconer raises his arm, and the lady simultaneously works the pump handle of the fountain. Activation is via a pusher on the interior of the case or by setting the alarm function. The small white enamel sub-dial carries Arabic hour numerals and is signed Reuge / 17 Jewels / Swiss Made.

The outer case back is finely engraved with a trophée musical, lyre, hunting horns, trumpets, laurel scrollwork. The traditional emblem of the musical watchmaking craft. The inner case back is signed Reuge à Sainte-Croix and numbered 1098.
The watch is presented on its original Boegli display stand in silvered metal, designed as a neoclassical portico with four fluted columns on a rectangular plinth, the fascia engraved Boegli. Suspended from the crossbar by its bow, the watch shows the animated dial to full decorative effect.

Circa. 1980

Maker: Reuge, Sainte-Croix, Switzerland

Retailed by: Boegli, Switzerland

Movement: Mechanical, 17 jewels, cylinder musical movement with automata

Case: Gold-plated metal (10 microns), hunter-case form

Serial no.: 1098 (inner case back)

Stand: Silvered metal, neoclassical column form, signed Boegli

Height (watch): c. 8 cm

Condition: Perfect

Literature:
Ord-Hume, Arthur W.J.G.: The Musical Clock: Musical & Automaton Clocks & Watches. Mayfield Books, England, 1995 (rev. ed. 1997). — The standard English-language reference for musical and automaton watches of this type.
Piguet, Jean-Claude: The Music Box Makers: The History of the Music Box in Sainte-Croix. MBSI, 2004. — Definitive history of the Sainte-Croix tradition to which Reuge belongs.
Chapuis, Alfred & Droz, Edmond: Automata: A Historical and Technological Study. Central Book Company, New York, 1958. — Foundational scholarly study of automata in horology and the decorative arts.