Rare Victorian Ottoman 0.800 silver pocket watch K.Serkisoff & Co Constantinople (Billodes/Zenith movement) - 1860-70's

RARE antique Swiss pocket watch K. Serkisoff & Co made by BILLODES (early ZENITH), for the Ottoman empire.

Amazing movement, fully jeweled with natural ruby's!!!

The watch was made in 1860-70's and it in great working order!

Enameled hand painted dial (perfect condition), full hunter case.

- mechanical movement
- key winding
- Enameled hand painted dial
- full hunter 0.800 silver case
- crystal glass
- diameter of the case -53mm
- diameter of the face - 43mm
- thickness - 18mm

Condition: checked and serviced, Pre-owned, very good working and cosmetic condition, signs of age and use The front hood was replaced back in the days

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Only 22 years young, in 1865 Georges Favre-Jacot founded the „Fabrique des Billodes“ in Le Locle. First he manufactured precision pocket watches, which were signed with his name. About 1900 the product range was expanded: There were on-board chronometers, table clocks, precision pendulum clocks and later marine chronometers.

The name "Zenith" came to his mind, when he just had developed a movement which seemed to him more perfect than all previous; looking up at the sky full of stars the sky appeared to him similar to the game of the wheels and cones in a perfect mechanical instrument, and he decided that his new movement and its manufactory should be named after the highest point of the universe: the zenith. From this emerged also the choice of a five-pointed star as corporate icon.

From 1903, the Favre-Jacot company took part regularly and very successfully in the competitions of the observatory Neuchâtel with its pocket watches and on-board chronometers. In 1903, he achieved a first prize in the competition of the observatory of Neuchâtel. The nephew of Favre-Jacot, James Favre, sold the watches to North and South America, Russia, India, China and Japan. 1908 followed the establishment of a branch in Moscow, 1909 in Paris, 1910 in Vienna and 1914 in London.

By transforming the firm into a stock company in the year 1911 the Zenith brand arose. In the same year Favre-Jacot retired and handed the management of the company over to James Favre. By James Favre, there was a revival of old traditions, especially with the "neuchâteloises". These new pendulum clocks were equipped with a 8-day carillon and on demand had also a quarter-hour repetition. 1923 he founded another company in the French Besançon and 1926 an additional office in New York.

After the First World War Zenith began with the development and manufacture of wristwatches, including alarm and chronograph functions. For the chronographs movements by Valjoux, Excelsior Park and from 1960 on by Martel were used, which were bought by Zenith. In May of the year 1929, the astronomical observatory in England told the public that out of 19,835 watches from all over the world a watch by Zenith set a new record with a daily deviation of only 0.6 seconds.

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