Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong,the Ritz Carlton Hotel,harbour Room, 3rd Floor, Jun 02, 2007

LOT 122

"Five-Minute Repeating, Perpetual Calendar" Tiffany & Co., Geneva, No. 14600. Made circa 1875. Very fine and extremely rare, small, five-minute repeating, 18K gold keyless pocket watch with perpetual calendar without month indication.

HKD 180,000 - 220,000

USD 25,000 - 30,000 / EUR 18,000 - 22,000

Sold: HKD 177,000

C. Four-body, "bassine", polished. Glazed gold-rimmed cuvette. D. White enamel with unusual Arabic numerals over the minute track, subsidiary dials in red for the date, days of the week and seconds. Blued steel "spade" hands. M. 35 mm., 16''', rhodium-plated, "fausses cotes" decoration, 29 jewels, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, swanneck micrometer regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band. Dial and movement signed. Diam. 42 mm. Property of a Spanish Collector


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent

Case: 3

Good

Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense

Dial: 3-43-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

The present watch, due to its small size, has a very unusual dial in which the numerals are placed over the minute track to allow space for the subsidiary dials. The perpetual calendar is of a very unusual and rare type, the dial only showing the days of the week and the date, with no month indication. In effect, this means that the calendar must be set by a watchmaker and then kept going so that the calendar stays in sequence.

Tiffany, Genève In 1872, the New York firm, founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany, opened a branch in Geneva. The aim was to produce watch movements made entirely under one roof but the branch, which specialized in complicated and high quality pieces, ceased operations in 1879. Patek Philippe took over the management of the factory and then continued to supply Tiffany with watches (ususally marked on the dial "Tiffany & Co.").