Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Du Rhône, Oct 15, 2006

LOT 32

? Envoyée a Ducom? Breguet et Fils, No. 411 (Ancien No. 3988), Horloge Marine à un Barillet, ?Petit Modèle?, sold to Monsieur Ducom on August 23, 1827, for 2,400 Francs. Very fine and very rare, mahogany and brass-cased two-day marine chronometer with eccentric dial and ?Z? balance.

CHF 45,000 - 55,000

EUR 28,000 - 35,000 / USD 37,000 - 45,000

Sold: CHF 59,000

C. Brass bowl with screwed glazed bezel and gimballed in a three-body solid mahogany box with glazed panel in the top under a spring loaded hinged lid, the lid with lozenge-shaped numbered brass plaque, brass fittings and steel fastening screws, hinged handles, special gimbal lock operated by a lever which both locks the gimbal and lifts the bowl. D. Matte silvered, inscribed ?Dépôt De La Marine?, eccentric, the hour and minute dial with radial Roman numerals and outer dot minute markers, Arabic ten-minute numerals, subsidiary seconds below. Blued steel ?spade? hands. M. 86 mm., brass, one barrel with fusee and chain, Harrison?s maintaining power, train under the dial, navette-shaped platform with Earnshaw?s spring detent escapement mounted in front of the barrels, jeweled impulse pallet, spring footed detent, bimetallic compensation balance, four mean time adjustment nuts, four temperature screws, the upper pivot with parachute, jewelled escapement, balance with diamond endstone, special alloy helical balance spring without terminal curves, the lower stud adjustable horizontally and vertically, balance locking slide accessed from beneath the bowl. Dial signed and numbered, case numbered. Diameter of bowl. 98 mm., Box dim. 20.5 x 18 x 18 cm.


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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

History: This chronometer was first sold to Monsieur Ducom on 23 August, 1827, Ducom was Breguet?s principal agent in the Bordeaux region. The Breguet archives show that this chronometer was exchanged for Breguet No. 277 on May 30, 1840 by Captain de Vanauld of the ship ?L?Irma?. At this time the chronometer was fully cleaned and overhauled before being sold to the Ministère de la Marine on March 24, 1845, for 2,400 Francs. The Breguet workbooks show that the escapement was made by Clavey and the timing done by Couet.