Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 147

Breguet, No. 600. Made in Switzerland during the French Revolutionary period, circa 1795. Fine and extremely rare, quarter repeating, 18K gold pedometer-type self-winding pocket watch with virgule escapement.

CHF 18,000 - 23,000

EUR 12,000 - 15,000 / USD 15,000 - 20,000

Sold: CHF 24,150

C. Four-body, ?Directoire?, polished, stepped bezel and border. Gold-rimmed glazed cuvette. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute indexes and Arabic quarter-hour numerals. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. Gilt brass, 3/4 plate, going barrel wound by an crescent-shaped gold weight with limiting device to prevent winding when fully wound, virgule escapement, threearm gold balance, flat blued steel balance spring, index regulator, repeating with two hammers on two square-section gongs activated by depressing the pendant. Dial and movement signed ?Breguet?, case with maker?s mark JAB, numbered on the pendant. Diam. 55 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3-6

Good

Slightly oxidized
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-25-01

Good

Chipped

HANDS Original

Notes

This watch is extremely interesting. Its fine workmanship and certain details reminiscent of features used in watches made by Breguet after his return to France in 1795, suggest that it might have been one of those made by Breguet during his Neuchâtel exile. Features indicative of Breguet?s work are the limiting device with three slots and the crescent-shaped weight geared to the wolf?s tooth wheel (this arrangement of wheels is also used for the up-and-down indication in many of Breguet?s watches). The present watch is also comparable, in terms of its appearance and type of winding, to the self-winding watches made by Perrelet and the Jaquet Droz during the last quarter of the 18th century. During the Revolutionary period, Breguet used Lépine ébauches with virgule escapements (see watch No. 135, 2nd series, sold in 1792 and pictured on page 150 of George Daniels?s ?The Art of Breguet?).