1970 Lépine Swiss Arnex Fired Enamel Unitas Cal. 6431 18,5 Pocket Watch

  
Vintage open face pocket watch. Aside from the unique fired enamel face. With green elements around Roman numerals, it's kin of Cortébret. Arge open face railroad watch.

It has an intriguing vintage. With all the features and beauty of pocket watches made during the peak of the popularity during the 1910 era and development of the modern Swiss movement of 1970's, this watch has a broad appeal to enthusiasts today.

The face of the watch has green circular elements surrounding the numbers. It uses Roman numerals to represent the hours, displayed in black. Three black hands indicate hours, minutes, and seconds. Underneath the beautiful design lies a watch few watch so-called experts understand.

Atop the base plate of the. Cortébert Caliber 726/736 with a size of 18,5 Ligne (41 mm) is the Unitas 6431/6445. This makes it one of the most advanced watches produced by the any watch company.

Ébauches SA group, a holding of which Cortebert and Unitas were members, absorbed both companies during the 1985 merger with Swatch Group Ltd. Cortebert ceased the production of large pocket watch movements and started using Unitas 6497 units with "Cortebert" engravings. Cortebert movements became modern Unitas units that were used, for example, by Officine Panerai SpA in 1993 for their Pre-Vendôme watches and after 1997 also.

We only had one concern with this watch which modern technology solved. In 1970, Swiss Watchmaker Research Laboratory (LSRH) in Neuchatel (Switzerland) and Moebius developed synthetic oil. However, the Unitas movements we have found in estate watches and late into the century, still had animal lubricants present. During our restoration process, we used Moebius synthetic greases and oils. This change improved the performance and will let it run for years to come.

It's not a what, rather a who. Jean-Antoine Lépine, 18 November 1720 - 31 May 1814, was a French watchmaker. He contributed inventions which are still used in watchmaking today and was amongst the finest French watchmakers, who were contemporary world leaders in the field. Lépine's most notable work includes the invention of the Lépine calibre around 1765.

This was a revolutionary design that changed the structure of watch movements by eliminating the top plate used in traditional movements. Instead, he used bridges, which allowed for a thinner design and is still used in modern watchmaking.