Masterworks of Time: Splendours for the East 「時間傑作：西器東傳」

Masterworks of Time: Splendours for the East 「時間傑作：西器東傳」

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 533. A VERY FINE GOLD ASTRONOMICAL WATCH WITH PERPETUAL CALENDAR, RETROGRADE DATE, UP-AND-DOWN, EQUATION OF TIME AND APERTURE FOR MOON PHASES CIRCA 1960s, NO. 4377 [ 黃金天文懷錶備萬年曆、逆跳日期、時間等式及月相顯示，年代約1960，編號4377].

Attributed to Golay & Aubert

A VERY FINE GOLD ASTRONOMICAL WATCH WITH PERPETUAL CALENDAR, RETROGRADE DATE, UP-AND-DOWN, EQUATION OF TIME AND APERTURE FOR MOON PHASES CIRCA 1960s, NO. 4377 [ 黃金天文懷錶備萬年曆、逆跳日期、時間等式及月相顯示，年代約1960，編號4377]

VAT applies to hammer price and buyer's premium

Lot Closed

November 12, 03:34 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 CHF

Lot Details

Description

Attributed to Golay & Aubert


A VERY FINE GOLD ASTRONOMICAL WATCH WITH PERPETUAL CALENDAR, RETROGRADE DATE, UP-AND-DOWN, EQUATION OF TIME AND APERTURE FOR MOON PHASES

CIRCA 1960s, NO. 4377

[ 黃金天文懷錶備萬年曆、逆跳日期、時間等式及月相顯示，年代約1960，編號4377]


• Movement: 18''' nickel, lever escapement, jewelled to the centre, compensation balance, the calendar and equation work attributed to Golay & Aubert, backplate bearing the signature Breguet and numbered 4377

• Dial: silver guilloché with multiple contrasting engine-turned finishes, satin finished chapter ring, Roman numerals, outer minute ring, three sectors for power reserve, equation of time and retrograde date, subsidiary month dial to centre, aperture for moon phases with age above, blued steel hands, two silvered plaques bearing the signature Breuget and numbered 4377

• Case: 18ct gold, rounded polished bezels, polished hinged back, milled band with two recessed pushers for adjusting moon phases and calendar, gold pendant and bow, plain polished cuvette signed and numbered Breguet, no. 4377, case back with maker's mark JC with a crescent moon above and star below within lozenge-shaped cartouche, French control marks


diameter 51mm


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Antiquorum Geneva, The Art of Breguet, 14 April 1991, lot 132

The movement of the present watch uses an ébauche with calendar and equation work attributed to Léon Aubert and his apprentice and successor Paul-Auguste Golay - two of the very finest makers of calendar complications. Aubert invented a mechanism for displaying the equation of time in c.1895 and delivered mechanisms for the display to Victorin Piguet and Patek Philippe. Among the watches worked on by Léon Aubert and Paul-Auguste Golay was Patek Philippe no. 198.023, a double dialled astronomical pocket watch with sky chart for Warren, Ohio, made for James Ward Packard. Aubert was also responsible for the calendar and astronomical indications of the Dent Ultra-Complication, formerly in the present watch collection (see: Sotheby's, Masterworks of Time, Part III, 16 June 2020, lot 34). 


Although the present watch (no. 4377) does not appear in the record books of Breguet, it seems that it was produced and intended for them; the reason why it was not finally delivered to or sold by Breguet is unknown. At the time of its appearance at The Art of Breguet auction held at Antiquorum Geneva in 1991, it was noted that the watch was completed in May 1977, however, no citation was given for that date. An almost identical watch, numbered 5026 and also signed Breguet, is illustrated in C. Clutton & G. Daniels, Watches, (1st Edition 1965, figs. 596-7 & 3rd Edition, 1979, figs. 382 a & b). No. 5026 was owned by Sam Bloomfield, a well-known collector of pocket watches, friend of George Daniels, and owner of the third watch Daniels ever made. Given that watch no. 5026 was in the possession of Sam Bloomfield by 1965 (the date of the first edition of Cecil Clutton and George Daniels' book, Watches), it seems likely that production of the present watch commenced in the 1960s.