Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Du Rhône, Oct 15, 2006

LOT 399

"Eight Day Marine Chronometer" Charles Frodsham, "By Appointment to the Queen", 84 Strand, London, No. 5023. Made circa 1860. Fine and rare, 8-day going mahogany marine chronometer with reverse fusee, power reserve indication and ratchet key.

CHF 7,000 - 9,000

EUR 4,500 - 5,700 / USD 5,700 - 7,500

Sold: CHF 11,210

C. Two-tier (lid missing), brass-bound corners, external drop handles, glazed top, upper section with ivory signature plaque, gimbaled brass bowl with locking slide. D. Silvered with champlevé radial Roman numerals, outer minute track with Arabic five minute numerals, subsidiary seconds and power reserve indication, engraved with the Royal appointment and 1855 Exhibition gold medal of honor badges. Gold "spade" hands.M. Gilt brass, half-plate, "spotted" decoration, ring turned pillars, reversed fusee and chain, Harrison's maintaining power, Earnshaw's spring detent escapement mounted on a two-tier circular carriage with peripheral brass balance guard, jeweled locking stone, cut bimetallic compensation balance with two segmental temperature weights and two temperature adjustment screws, two meantine adjustment screws, free-sprung blued steel helical balance spring with upper and lower terminal curves, diamond endstone. Dial, case and movement signed and numbered. Dial diam. 121 mm. Dim. 19 x 20.5 x 20 cm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 4-27

Fair

Custom-made
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-7-01

Good

Oxidized

HANDS Original

Notes

Charles Frodsham (1810-1871). Was the most celebrated of the Frodsham family, with its numerous watchmakers, and was a prominent maker of very high grade chronometers and watches. For the 1851 exhibition, they introduced a three-quarter plate caliber which they marked ?AD.FMSZ?, which continued subsequently to be put on all their highest grade work. In 1868 he devised a form of electrical contact for taking signals for chronometers. The company he founded continued after his death. Reverse Fusee An arrangement whereby the conventional positioning of the barrel and fusee is reversed. Hence, the fusee chain crosses over between the barrel and fusee, near the center wheel pinion, reducing the friction on the arbor bearings.