Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 122

Fonnereau a la Rochelle. Made circa 1650. Very fine, silver pre-balance spring, ?fermée? type pendant watch with single hand and alarm.

CHF 18,000 - 23,000

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

Sold: CHF 29,900

C. Two-body, ?bassine?, pierced and engraved with foliage and flowers, hinged cover decorated to match, cast pendant. D. Gilt brass dial plate with stiff-leaf engraved decoration, silver chapter ring with radial Roman numerals and half-hour markers, inner gilt brass alarm disc engraved with Arabic numerals and with florally engraved center, blued steel ?tulip? alarm pointer. Fine blued steel hand. M. 35 mm., gilt brass full-plate, turned baluster pillars, fusee with gut line, verge escapement, two-arm steel balance without spring, pierced florally engraved balance cock with small foot secured by a screw, alarm barrel with pierced and engraved foliate decoration, steel alarm train with double-ended hammer striking a bell in the back of the case, worm and wheel regulation with pierced blued steel feet and silver numbered disc. Movement signed. Diam. 47 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Zacharie Fonnereau Originally from Geneva, he traveled to Lyon in 1618, became a ?Compagnon? in 1622, and was working in La Rochelle, France, by 1641. There he became a Master, in 1641. Fonnereau died shortly afterward. He is known to have signed a cruciform watch ?Fonnereau à La Rochelle?. ?Dictionnaire des horlogers genevois? by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, 1998.