Importantes Montres de Collection

Geneva, Nov 13, 2011

LOT 494

HAAS NEVEUX, MINUTE REPEATING PERPETUAL CALENDAR & CHRONOGRAPH WITH PATENT KEYLESS COVER WINDING Haas Neveux & Co., Genève, No. 15849. Made circa 1880. Extremely fine and equally rare, large, 18K pink gold, minute-repeating, hunting-cased lever chronometer pocket watch with perpetual calendar, chronograph, register, moon phases and ?remontoire perpétuel à décrochement? keyless cover winding to the English patent (No. 3945) of Benjamin Haas 1873.

CHF 35,000 - 55,000

USD 38,000 - 60,000 / EUR 30,000 - 45,000

Sold: CHF 56,250

C. Four-body, ?bassine?, polished, fi ve-bar hinges, co-axial chronograph and hand-setting button in the pendant. Hinged gold cuvette with engine turned border. D. White enamel, Arabic numerals, outer minute track with fi ve-minute Arabic numerals, outermost fi fths of a second divisions with gold painted numerals calibrated to 300 units, subsidiary dials for the seconds combined with days of the week, months of the four-year cycle, date combined with 30-minute register, aperture for the moon phases. Black spade hands. M. 19''', rhodium plated, fausses cotes decoration, stamped with the seal of Geneva quality mark, 36 jewels, wolf?s tooth winding, calibrated and counterpoised straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with blued steel Breguet balance spring, swan-neck micrometer regulator, patented winding mechanism by closing the cover which transmits the power via two levers to a ratchet wheel on the barrel arbor, a safety device disengaging the mechanism when fully wound, going train with an additional wheel driving a steel wheel fi xed to the center wheel having half the diameter of the driving one, second motion train driven from the canon pinion and advanced directly by pushing the teeth of the minute wheel. Dial, case and cuvette signed and numbered, movement numbered. Diam. 56 mm


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image
Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2

Very good
Dial: 2-01

Very good

HANDS Original

Notes

This watch is in exceptionally good condition. It would appear to be the most complicated watch by Haas Neveux with patent cover winding to be offered at auction to date. In 1873 Benjamin Haas patented a winding mechanism (English patent No. 3945 of Dec. 2, 1873). The idea was to use the energy generated by closing the front cover to wind the watch. The initial idea was improved upon; his watch features a well developed system with a 36-hour power reserve generated by 12 closings. To achieve this, Haas changed the going train, adding a wheel, which allowed him three hours' winding by a single closing. He designed a safety device disengaging the mechanism when fully wound, which prevents damage to the cover.
Haas Neveux Founded in 1848 by Benjamin Haas, later becoming known as Haas Neveux & Cie, it is one of the oldest Swiss watch manufacturers. The Haas signature has always been one of the most sought after, thanks to the impeccable standards of the company. Among their most notable creations was the first ultra thin watch, launched at the end of the 19th century. Haas gained a reputation as a manufacturer of fi ne chronometers, chronographs, and highly complicated watches.