Important Watches, Wristwatches and C...

Hong Kong, Hotel Furama Kempinski, Jun 09, 1997

LOT 404

Lepine Horloger du Roy, Paris, Invenit et Fecit, No. 5229, with Paris hallmarks for 1789. Fine and rare 18K gold, dumb quarter repeating watch with wolf's tooth train.

HKD 27,000 - 30,000

USD 3,500 - 4,000

Sold: HKD 36,800

C. Double body, polished, by Guillaume Mermillod (Master mark), with concealed hinge and fixed bezel. Gilt brass hinged cuvette. D. White enamel with Arabic numerals and outer red Arabic minute ring (slightly restored on border of the bezel). Gold skeletonised "fleurs-de-lys " hands, typical of Lepine's work. M. Gilt brass, typical Lepine calibre with freestanding barrel and wolf' s tooth train, cylinder escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring. Repeating on the case by depressing the pendant with a single massive polished steel hammer. Signed on the dial and cuvette. In good condition. Diam. 54 mm.


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Notes

Very good example of a watch made by jean Antoine Lepine. The case with fixed bezel; the back opening by twisting the pendant; the dial with a form of Arabic numerals, that could have inspired Breguet for one of his own designs; and the gold skeletonised "fleurs-de-lys" hands are typical of Lepine's style. Moreover, the movement illustrates all the characteristics associated with Lepine's work and is identical to that chosen by Moinet to illustrate his book: Nouveau Trade d'Horlogerie, plate 10. According to A. Chapiro, jean Antoine Lepine Horloger, Editions de l'Amateur, Lepine made his first watches with wolf's tooth trains in 1771, but it is mainly between 1787 and 1789, that Lepine used the wolf's tooth train for watches numbered between 5200 and 5711.