Important Collector's Wristwatches,Po...

Grand Havana Room, Mar 24, 2004

LOT 82

International Watch Co., Schaffhausen, "Grande Complication", No. 18/ 50, Ref. 3770.Produced in a limited edition of 50 examples in 1993.Very fine and extremely rare, oversized, astronomic, minute-repeating, self-winding, platinum gentleman?swristwatch, square button chronograph, registers, secular perpetual calendar, moon phases and a platinum IWC buckle.

USD 70,000 - 90,000

EUR 55,000 - 70,000

C. three-body, solid, polished, case back with screws, pyramidal bezel, curved straight lugs, screwed-down crown, sapphire crystal.D. white with applied yellow gold indexes, subsidiary dials for the seconds, the 12-hour and 30-minute registers, the days of the month,the week and the months, apertures for the 4-digit year and the phases of the moon. Yellow gold ?bâton? hands. M. Cal 79091,rhodium-plated, "fausses côtes" decoration, 68 jewels, straight line lever escapement, monometallic balance, shock-absorber, self-compensatingflat balance spring, repeating on gongs by activating slide on the band.Dial, case and movement signed.Diam. 42 mm.InternationalWatch Co.,

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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 1

As new

Movement: 1

As new

Dial: 1 - 01

Notes

SchaffhausennIn the 1870's, American-born FlorentineAriosto Jones, who had been appointeddirector of the E. Howard & Co. watchmak-ingfactory in Boston at the early age of 27,decided to manufacture high-quality move-mentsand watch parts for the Americanmarket using American technology and skilledlabor from Switzerland, where wages were com-parativelylow. However, the skilled workers in theGeneva region and in the remote valleys of the Juramountains resisted the plans of a man they considered anintruder, and it was not until Jones teamed up with JohannHeinrich Moser from Schaffhausen that his plan could be real-ized.Moser had built a hydrostation in Schaffhausen, powered bywater from the Rhine, which generated low-cost energy. In 1868, Jones set-tledon the banks of the Rhine, creating the International Watch Company.Schaffhausen had long been a watchmaking town, with a clockmaker's guild existing there since 1583.The town was also home to the famous Halbrecht family of clockmakers, who built the impressive astro-nomicalclock for the Strasburg cathedral. However, Jones' arrival marked a new era in time measurement, forhe was not only an entrepreneur but a talented watchmaker. The first pocket watches produced in Schaffhausenwith the Jones caliber had a wealth of advanced technical features. A year after its foundation, the "American" watchfactory passed into Swiss hands, but its philosophy-"Probus Scafusia" (good, solid craftsmanship from Scaffhausen)-hasremained unchanged. By the late 1930's, IWC's reputation was so good that its watches were considered "the poor man'sPatek Philippe". In recent years, IWC enlarged their horological scope by a close cooperation not only with Jaeger LeCoultre, butalso with A. Lange & Söhne in Glashütte.