Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 146

?Monsieur Bastreche? Breguet, No. 608. Sold to Monsieur Bastreche, Germinal an 8 (21 March 1800 - 19 April 1801) for 3000 Francs. Very fine and rare 18K rose gold, enamel and diamond-set médaillon montre à tact. Accompanied by a 1953 Breguet certificate and later fitted box and key.

CHF 25,000 - 30,000

EUR 16,000 - 20,000 / USD 20,000 - 24,000

Sold: CHF 42,550

C. Three-body 'forme collier' the front cover with translucent dark blue enamel over sunburst effect engine-turning (eccentric ellipse pattern). Revolving back cover with arrow tact hand set with rose-cut diamonds and with finely reeded edge. The reeded band set with 11 rose diamond touch pieces, the diamond-set pendant with loose bow forming the 12th. Gold cuvette engraved Breguet N. 608, with apertures for the dial and the winding holes. D. Small eccentric silvered with Arabic numerals and outer minute track, mounted on the barrel bridge. Blued-steel Breguet hands, one missing. M. 34 mm (15???), fire-gilded ?souscription? caliber with center barrel wound only from the front, five-wheel, 45-hour going train controlled by ruby cylinder escapement with brass three-arm balance with flat blued-steel balance spring, index regulator. Cuvette and movement signed. Diam. 42 mm. 38.5 mm. without diamonds.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

The fitted box accompanying this watch dates from the second half of the 19th Century. It appears to have been made for this watch and the lid bears an applied gilt crown and the initial ?R?. Breguet classified his souscription watches as 'petite', 'moyenne' and 'grande'. Out of about 915 Breguet souscription type watches, only about 35 'petites' are known. They were the most expensive, averaging around SFr. 1700. Breguet introduced them in the spring of 1799, selling the first to Madame Bettancourt, the wife of his most trusted friend. The present watch is one of the earliest 'médaillon montre à tact'. A nearly identical watch is described and illustrated in Daniels?s 'The Art of Breguet', p.182.