This rare pair is not only highly attractive and pleasing to the eye with visible moving parts, it is also technically fascinating and innovative.

The balances have a seconds-beating action to allow the centre seconds hand to advance in one-second increments, the escapement is ultimately derived from that invented by Moise Pouzait in the late 18th century. The centre seconds hands can be stopped/activated by a lever in the band.

Although unsigned, the watches can be attributed to DuBois & Fils, master watchmakers of Le Locle, Switzerland, who were evidently familiar with Moise Pouzait’s lever escapement which he developed in the 1780s. In 1786 Pouzait made a model of his escapement which he presented to the Geneva Société des Arts.

Due to its highly visible and mesmerizing action, Pouzait’s invention was much appreciated by the Chinese before Jacot’s invention of the “Chinese duplex” escapement which made the production of centre seconds watches feasible in larger numbers.

An identical watch is part of the Wilsdorf Collection, published in Rolex, Montres et Emaux de Genève, page 171.

Objects destined for the export to China were often made in pairs, the decoration identical but mirror-imaged so that they would face each other when displayed. According to tradition, this unusual habit had two reasons, one symbolic and one practical: the Chinese love for symmetry represented also by the lucky number "2", suggesting harmonious coexistence and, to some extent, reproduction, and the popular Chinese proverb stating "good things come in pairs".

The practical aspect was the availability of a substitute - should one of the items need to be returned to Europe for repair for example, a process likely to take several months at the time, there was still its "twin" left to embellish ones' home. Often used as offering from a European dignitary to a Chinese dignitary, absolutely no effort was spared in the manufacture of these unprecedented, veritable marvels made to please the Chinese mandarins.