The present watch is a fine example of one of the extraordinary timepieces made for wealthy Chinese clientele particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, often by special order. It features all the ingredients favoured by the Oriental connoisseur, such as the sumptuously decorated gold case and a complicated movement incorporating musical and repeating mechanisms.

Although not signed, the movement can be attributed to the workshop of the renowned watchmakers and goldsmiths Isaac-Daniel Piguet (1775-1841) and Philippe-Samuel Meylan (1772-1845), amongst Switzerland's foremost makers of musical and automaton watches mainly for the Chinese market. Some of their movements were extremely thin, featuring the disc or sur plateau format with fan teeth, such as the present watch, a system believed to have been invented by Meylan.

For an illustration of a comparable musical movement by Piguet Meylan see: La Montre Chinoise by Alfred Chapuis, p. 219, pl. 180.