Antique Gold Pocket Watch Circa 1870 Lépine Calibre Bridge Movement - Thornhill Antiques

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This type of fairly cheap watch, with a key wound and set movement and cylinder escapement, was made in the tens of thousands in Switzerland. 

The terms "Lépine movement" or "Lépine calibre" are not a brand name or maker, they describe a type of movement invented in the eighteenth century by Jean Antoine Lépine of Paris and describe the type of movements made by most watch makers in France and Switzerland during the whole of the 19th century. After 1850 a layout with the barrel bridge a straight bar and the cocks arranged more in parallel was used.

Swiss cylinder escapement watches were rather looked down upon by the English watchmakers, who considered that only the English lever escapement was capable of good timekeeping, and that cylinder escapements wore out quickly. But the Swiss made watches with hardened steel cylinders and escape wheels that were not only good timekeepers but also lasted well. They were able to sell these at a price that the British public liked, undercutting the expensive English watchmakers, who continued to look down their noses as their trade was taken away.