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Hotel Nogalhilton Geneve, Nov 11, 2001

LOT 326

Breguet No. 3356, "Garde-Temps", sold to Monsieur Guillomot on September 13, 1939, for 30,000 francs.Very fine and important 18K gold and platinum, keyless one-minute tourbillon regulator with 30-hour power reserve indicator, accompanied by a fitted box and a certificate.

CHF 100,000 - 140,000

USD 63,000 - 88,000

Sold: CHF 146,500

C. Four-body, "Empire", polished back, reeded band, bezels with silver edges, gold hinged cuvette. D. Silver, radial Roman numerals on sanded ring with outer minute divisions, subsidiary seconds, up-and-down indicator under XII o'clock, engine turned center and edge. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 43,5 mm (19'''), nickel half-plate, "fausses côtes" decoration in narrow straps, 21 jewels, one-minute three-arm equidistant tourbillon carriage with Swiss lateral lever escapement, cut anibal-brass Guilaume compensation balance, special steel alloy balance spring with Phillips curves, regulator set around the endstone plate allowing for ample angular displacement, fitted with additional micrometric adjustment for final regulation.Signed on dial and case.Diam. 51,6 mm

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Image

Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good

Movement: 2

Very good

Dial: 2 - 01

Notes

This tourbillon system was registered on March, 27, 1930 by the Ecole d'horlogerie de la Vallée, Le Sentier, and a license was granted to Le Coultre & Cie. It became one of the most successful tourbillon designs.A virtually identical watch (Breguet, No. 3046) is described and illustrated in "Le Tourbillon" by Reinhard Meis, Editions de l'Amateur, Paris, 1990, p. 187.Anibal (acier au nickel pour balanciers), an alloy invented by Dr. Charles Edouard Guillaume, exhibits unusual properties, both in terms of thermal expansion and changes in elasticity. These properties are very different from those of two other famous alloys invented by Guillaume, Invar and Elinvar. At the end of the 1800's, Guillaume attempted to eliminate the so-called Middle Temperature Error caused by the fact that the change of rate in a timekeeper with a steel-brass bimetallic balance is aproximately a linear function of temperature, while the modifications caused by change in elasticity of a balance spring are approximately a quadratic function. Thus, it equals zero at only two temperatures, causing secondary error. Countless attempts were made to eliminate Middle Temperature Error, usually by means of auxiliary compensation devices. In 1899, Guillaume noticed that steel with an addition of 44.4% nickel had a negative square coefficient of thermal expansion. This, combined withrass in bimetallic lamina, makes its expansion close to quadratic. Balances with bimetallic rims made of anibal and brass are usually called Guillaume balances, or, as their inventor called them, integral balances. When combined with special balance springs, they exhibit remarkable temperature stability, on occasion not exceeding 1/50 second per day at 1oC.