100 Years of Wristwatches

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Nov 19, 2000

LOT 193

Omega 'Tourbillon', No. 10595937, Cal. 1, produced in 1947.Extremely rare and very important, 18K yellow gold chronometer gentleman's wristwatch with a 7 1/2minute r evolving 'Tourbillon' regulator. Accompanied by a gold-plated Omega buckle and a book-shapedbrown leather fitted box.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

USD 35,000 - 48,000

Sold: CHF 102,500

C. three-body, solid, polished, transparent back, lapidated bezel, concave lugs. D. matte silver with yellow goldbâton indexes and Arabic numerals, auxiliary seconds dial. 'Bâton' yellow gold hands. M. Cal. 30.I.1947, 2/3plate, nickel silver, 25 jewels, 'tourbillon' regulator, brass cage in two parts held by three case-screws with slantedsurface, cut bimetallic Guillaume balance, Breguet overcoil, 18'000 vibration/hour, index visible on one of thecage's arm, on the band at 4 o'clock, push-button for hand-setting.Dial and movement signed.Diam. 36 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 1

As new
Movement: 1

As new
Dial: 1 - 01

Notes

Conceived to eliminate positional error, the 'tourbillon' is a rotating cage containing all the escapement parts, with,at its center, the balance.Omega designed, e xclusively for Observatory precision contests, only twelve e xamples of this chronometer made b yJean-Pierre Matthey-Claudet according to plans drawn by Marcel Vuilleumier, director of the 'Ecole d'horlogerie' of theVallée de Joux. Regulated by the famous Alfred Jaccard, some of these watches obtained e xcellent results from 1947 t o1952 in Kew Teddington (London), Neuchâtel and Geneva.One piece particularly - No. 10'595'933 - won 867.7 points at the Gene va Observatory contest in 1950, the bestperformance ever achieved up to that time, in the category of single wristwatches.In 1987, seven of this series of chronometers had their 2/3 plate mo vement entirely o verhauled, rhodium plated,angled, polished, decorated with the 'Côtes de Genève' and fitted with an 18K gold case with transparent back andpush-button for time-setting protected by an olivette.