Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Noga Hilton, Oct 16, 2005

LOT 53

Attributed to Dubois et Fils, Locle. Made for the Chinese market circa 1800. Fine and very rare 18K gold, diamond-set, dead center-seconds pocket watch with Pouzait escapement and calendar.

CHF 16,000 - 21,000

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

Sold: CHF 16,100

C. Two-body, ?Directoire?, polished, Master mark DFK. D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions and Arabic 15 minute/seconds numerals, winding aperture at 4 o?clock. Fancy gold hour and minute hands. M. 47 mm, gilt brass full plate with tapered pillars, fusee and chain, slow-beat Pouzait lever escapement with large diamond-set balance with five curved arms, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator. Diam. 57 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3-29

Good

Lacking elements
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 4-24-01

Fair

Slightly chipped

HANDS Original

Notes

Pouzait Escapement During the late 18th century, watchmakers sought to produce watches with dead center-seconds hands, in great favor in scientific circles and on the Chinese market. Pouzait?s effort featured a lever escapement associated with a large seconds-beating balance. His escapement was much appreciated by the Chinese before the invention by Jacot of the socalled ?Chinese duplex? escapement, enabling the production of dead center-seconds watches. Jean Moïse Pouzait (1743-1793) In 1786 Jean Moïse Pouzait presented the Geneva Society of Arts with a model of his lever escapement. Pouzait, who eleven years earlier had invented the independent seconds mechanism, possibly wanted to make a simpler mechanism for dead seconds. Whatever his motives, he was one of the first to introduce the lever escapement to the Continent. The present lot was previously sold by Antiquorum Geneva, on April 10, 1994, lot 65.