Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 45

?Wolf?s Tooth? Lépine, Horloger du Roy, Paris, Invenit et Fecit, No. 5229, Paris hallmarks for 1789. Fine and extremely rare, large 18K gold, dumb quarter repeating watch with wolf?s tooth train and Lépine?s special opening mechanism.

CHF 16,000 - 21,000

EUR 10,000 - 14,000 / USD 13,000 - 17,000

Sold: CHF 20,700

C. Two-body, by Guillaume Mermillod (GM), polished, fixed bezel, concealed hinge. Gilt brass cuvette. D. White enamel with Arabic numerals and outer red Arabic minute ring. Gold ?Lépine type? pierced fleur-de-lys hands. M. 44 mm., gilt brass, Lépine calibre with free-standing barrel and wolf?s tooth train, cylinder escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, repeating on the case with a single massive polished steel hammer activated by depressing the pendant. Dial and cuvette signed. Diam. 54 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: 3-28-01

Good

Replacements

HANDS Original

Notes

The present watch is a very good example of Jean-Antoine Lépine?s work. The case with fixed bezel, the back opening by twisting the pendant, the distinctive form of Arabic numerals (which were to become fashionable until the Empire, and were used during the same period by Breguet), and the gold ?fleur-de-lys? hands are typical of Lépine?s style. The movement illustrates all the characteristics associated with Lépine?s work and is identical to that chosen by Moinet to illustrate his book ?Nouveau Traité d?Horlogerie, plate 10. According to A. Chapiro, ?Jean-Antoine Lepine, Horloger?, Editions de L?Amateur, Lépine made his first watches with wolf?s tooth trains in 1771, but it is mainly between 1787 and 1789 that Lépine used the wolf?s tooth train for watches numbered between 5200 and 5711. The present lot was previously sold by Antiquorum Hong Kong, on June 10, 1997, lot 404. For a biography of Lépine, see lot 34.