Important Collector's Wristwatches an...

New York, Omni Berkshire Place Hotel, May 11, 1998

LOT 128

George Daniels, London, marked CC, specially made for Mr. Cecil Clutton in 1969. Very elegant and unique 18K gold and silver pocket chronometer with twin barrel, chronometer escapement, one minute tourbillon regulator and retrograde jumping hours. In original red Morocco fitted box with gold male key, short tapered link gold chain and certificate.

USD 180,000 - 220,000

Sold: USD 244,500

C. double body with gold bands and silver rib between them, engine-turned silver back, marked "G.D." (George Daniels) with London hallmarks for 1969 and articulated crescent pendant drawn from that of Sylvain Mairet. D. silver engine turned with eccentric minute ring, retrograde hour sector, and subsidiary seconds. Blued steel hands. M. glazed 25"', frosted and gilt, with two barrels, pivoted detent escapement, four-arm monometallic balance with adjusting screw at each ends, based on the same principle as the giromax used by Patek Philippe, free sprung self compensating balance spring with terminal curve. Two-arm polished steel carriage with narrow straight lined bridge in the style of in the style of Nicole Nielsen first type. Signed on the dial and movement. Diam. 62 mm.

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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 1

As new

Dial: 1-51

As new

Partially reprinted

Notes

George Daniels never numbers the watches he produces and instead marks them with the initials of the name of the person for whom the watch is made. Described and illustrated by Cecil Glutton in Collector's Collection, A.H.S. Monograph, Number 8, pp. 77-79, this watch was the first ever made by George Daniels. It was specially made for Cecil Clutton and at his request fitted with a pivoted detent escapement, while all the other watches of this kind, produced by George Daniels, were made with a spring detent escapement. According to Cecil Clutton in Collector's Collection:...........I have never been able to tolerate the idea of the whole momentum of a tourbillon carriage being brought to rest against a little quivering detent spring, in compression. So mine has a pivoted detent, and mightily elegant and brilliant in action it is." About the case, Cecil Clutton says "...Another feature of my watch not found in any others by Daniels is a case of gold and silver". Also important is the following judgment about this watch: "Apart from apprentice test-pieces, it is probably over four hundred years since anyone made every bit of a watch himself. In my watch Daniels had to make everything himself, even clown to the screws. The only things he did not make or execute himself were the balance-spring, the mainspring and the engraving on the dial and movement. To do this he had to learn all the skills which used to be practiced by score of individual outworkers; not least case and hinge-making and engineturning. He had never made a watch-case before mine. It is a task whose magnitude would intimidate anyone, whatever his basic training. There is perhaps no-one else alive who could have carried it off with the brilliance of George Daniels." Every part of every Daniels watch is made by Daniels working alone without any assistance. During the past 15 years, Daniels' watches have regenerated interest in the mechanical watch so that world production is increasing. But Daniels remains the only maker who works entirely with his own designs and his own inventions, making every part in his own workshop. CECIL GLUTTON (1909 - 1991) There is no better biography of Cecil Clutton than the obituary written by Charles Allix and Berestford Hutchinson, published in Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1991: "Sam Clutton, who died on February 7th, was beyond all question the most colourful, and also the most endearingly eccentric, of all Founder Members of the Antiquarian IIorological Society. He was endowed with many talents, making his mark in no uncertain fashion hi horology, in the renaissance of the classical pipe organ, in the council for the Care of Churches, in the Vintage Sports Car Club and not last in his profession as a chartered surveyor and senior partner of the family firm in Westminster. Sam was also remarkable in forming properly integrated collections of watches, cars and house organs. He was altogether larger than life and will long be remembered for his remarkable courage, combined with immense determination. These qualities, helped by a very sharp wit and somewhat short fuse, served to catapult him to the very top of everything he touched. He quite simply had no time for anything he considered inferior. He was a prolific and almost too effortless writer, being author (or sometime co-author) of standard works on horology, cars and organs. hh this last field he had no present clay rival, his reputation being firmly established by as long ago as the late 1920's. He worked closely with Noel Mancter in the complete and enormously successful reconstruction of the Father Willis Organ in St. Paul's, besides in a number of other important organ projects. Although admitted to the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers only in 1961, he rose to be Master in 1973. 1Iere we must concentrate upon Sam's contributions to horology. In the 1950's the began work with G.H. Baillie and C.A. Ilbert upon an entirely new edition of the classic Britten's Old Clocks and Watches and Their TIakers; but both the others became ill almost immediately and Sant had to write the book alone. This version was published as the seventh edition just before Ilbert's death in 1956. Baillie had died in 1951. Saar was responsible for subsequent editions in 1969, 1973 and 1982. The year 1965 saw the publication of Clutton's and Daniels' Watches. This enjoyed great success and was updated and enlarged in 1971 and 1979, while Sam's own watch collection had a book to itself in 1974 under the title Collector's Collection (A.H.S. Monograph, Number 8). In 1975, he and George Daniels recatalogued the Guildhall Collection of the Clockmakers' Company. Lawrence Hurst and Sam edited Antiquarian Horologe from December 1960 to September 1962. Over the years, and especially in the early clays, its pages were periodically enlivened by Samsonian articles and letters. To Sam must go much of the credit for the revival since the 1939-45 War of intelligent study of precision watches and especially of early levers as made in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His attention to this subject, together with his writings with George Daniels, helped to bring about new appreciation of a facet of our national heritage which has always tended to be overlooked. He also was deeply interested in the art of Breguet." GEORGE DANIELS, MBE, FSA, FBHI Watchmaker, author and horological consultant, born in England in 1926. For a complete biography, see: Antiquorum auction catalogue The Art of British F7mology, 21 October 1995, p. 433.