Important Watches, Wristwatches and C...

New York, Omni Berkshire Place Hotel, Jun 20, 1998

LOT 28

Lumen, Swiss Patent No. 28265, circa 1900. Fine and rare gun metal keyless watch with highly unusual single train dead independent seconds mechanism.

C. Three body "demi-bassine " . Hinged gun metal cuvette. D. White enamel with Arabic numerals and outer Minute and seconds ring. Gold "pear" hands. M. 18"', gilt brass, 19 jewels, straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic balance, Breguet balance spring. Visible very unusual type of dead centre seconds mechanism driven by means of a double cam on the escape wheel arbor and a kind of brass escape wheel having alternated teeth pointing up and down and maintained in tension by a subsidiary spiral spring. The wheel can be locked and released at will from the winding crown by means of a lever, in such a way that when it is stopped, its teeth are maintained away from the cam. Signed on the movement. Diam. 52 mm.