Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 364

?Minute Repeating? Audemars Freres, Genève & Brassus, No. 8471. Made for Adolf Modro, Warszawa, circa 1912. Very fine and rare, minute repeating, 14K yellow gold gentleman?s wristwatch with an 18K yellow gold matching buckle.

CHF 33,000 - 43,000

EUR 21,000 - 28,000 / USD 27,000 - 35,000

C. Three-body, polished, curved bezel, ?club? shaped lugs, hinged back. D. White enamel with painted black Arabic numerals and red 12, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds. Blued steel ?spade? hands. M. 13???, frosted gilt, bar calibre, 16 jewels, straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating with two hammers on two gongs activated by a slide in the band. Case signed and numbered, movement numbered on the dial plate, dial signed by the retailer. Diam. 37 mm. Thickness 15 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3-6

Good

Slightly oxidized
Movement: 3-6*

Good

Slightly oxidized

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-12-01

Good

Worn

HANDS Original

Notes

Adolf Modro (b. 1840) As a 20 year-old apprentice he lived at Miodowa Street, Warsaw in 1860. By 1870 he was working as a salesman in the Fryderyk Wege watch shop. In 1874 he started his own workshop at 72, Marszalkowska Street in Warsaw where he stayed until after 1914. Apart from doing repairs, he sold watches from the leading brands such as Patek Philippe, Audemars, Mermod, Borel, Tissot etc. In advertisements dating from 1904 and 1907 he recommended ?high precision watches of his own make?. From 1909 he was also running the company of Konstanty Habrzycki ? Bialek which employed 12 people in 1911.