![INVENTED BY OSCAR E. BATORI AND RAYMOND NARDIN, MADE FOR BATORI COMPUTER COMPANY INC. NEW YORK: A VERY RARE, LARGE AND UNUSUAL BRONZE AND GILDED ASTRO-NAVIGATIONAL KEYLESS OPEN-FACED DECK WATCH WITH BLACK 24-HOUR DIAL SIMULTANEOUSLY INDICATING LOCAL TIME AND HOUR-ANGLE CORRESPONDING TO THE SIDEREAL TIME 1959, NO. 715565 [ 雅典罕有大型鎏金銅天文航海懷錶備黑色24小時錶盤，同時顯示當地時間及恆星時角，年份約1959，編號715565]](https://dam.sothebys.com/dam/image/lot/efc69dee-8b4c-45f5-8732-d23a4bad3bf5/primary/extra_small)
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 616. INVENTED BY OSCAR E. BATORI AND RAYMOND NARDIN, MADE FOR BATORI COMPUTER COMPANY INC. NEW YORK: A VERY RARE, LARGE AND UNUSUAL BRONZE AND GILDED ASTRO-NAVIGATIONAL KEYLESS OPEN-FACED DECK WATCH WITH BLACK 24-HOUR DIAL SIMULTANEOUSLY INDICATING LOCAL TIME AND HOUR-ANGLE CORRESPONDING TO THE SIDEREAL TIME 1959, NO. 715565 [ 雅典罕有大型鎏金銅天文航海懷錶備黑色24小時錶盤，同時顯示當地時間及恆星時角，年份約1959，編號715565].](https://sothebys-md.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/be12722/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1553x2000+0+0/resize/385x496!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia-desk%2F11%2F6e%2Faa24d6d64a83b0b9d65a13661811%2Fge2024-616-9y9w2-web.jpg)
Ulysse Nardin, Locle & Genève
INVENTED BY OSCAR E. BATORI AND RAYMOND NARDIN, MADE FOR BATORI COMPUTER COMPANY INC. NEW YORK: A VERY RARE, LARGE AND UNUSUAL BRONZE AND GILDED ASTRO-NAVIGATIONAL KEYLESS OPEN-FACED DECK WATCH WITH BLACK 24-HOUR DIAL SIMULTANEOUSLY INDICATING LOCAL TIME AND HOUR-ANGLE CORRESPONDING TO THE SIDEREAL TIME 1959, NO. 715565 [ 雅典罕有大型鎏金銅天文航海懷錶備黑色24小時錶盤，同時顯示當地時間及恆星時角，年份約1959，編號715565]
Lot Closed
November 12, 04:57 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 10,000 CHF
Lot Details
Description
Ulysse Nardin, Locle & Genève
INVENTED BY OSCAR E. BATORI AND RAYMOND NARDIN, MADE FOR BATORI COMPUTER COMPANY INC. NEW YORK: A VERY RARE, LARGE AND UNUSUAL BRONZE AND GILDED ASTRO-NAVIGATIONAL KEYLESS OPEN-FACED DECK WATCH WITH BLACK 24-HOUR DIAL SIMULTANEOUSLY INDICATING LOCAL TIME AND HOUR-ANGLE CORRESPONDING TO THE SIDEREAL TIME
1959, NO. 715565
[ 雅典罕有大型鎏金銅天文航海懷錶備黑色24小時錶盤，同時顯示當地時間及恆星時角，年份約1959，編號715565]
• Movement: damascened nickel, 30 jewels, two train, complex gearing for solar and sidereal time with planetary differential mechanism regulated by a lever escapement with compensation balance of non-magnetic non-oxidizing alloy, fine precision adjustment, train partially visible beneath the plates, engraved Sun-Star Chronometer, Ulysse Nardin, Swiss, Batori and marked Pat. Pend. by R.N. and O.E.B., 11.8.58, Swiss Pat. 23.9.57
• Dial: black, luminous Arabic 24-hour dial, mean time displayed via central luminescent hour and minute hands and a subsidiary seconds dial to base of the dial, the corresponding hour angle corresponding to sidereal time in arc degrees, minutes and seconds indicated respectively by the right & left subsidiary dials and the central red seconds hand, the right subsidiary calibrated for 360 arc degrees with red hand indicating in 10˚ increments, left subsidiary calibrated from 0-10˚, red central seconds hand indicating the angle in arc seconds on the scale 0-60
• Case: brass, gilded bezel, bow, pendant and crowns, gilded screw-down case back, crown by '19' turned in tandem with olivette at '17' for adjusting degree calibrated subsidiary dials, nibs beneath '14' marked 'on-off' for starting & stopping movement, glazed inner cuvette with centrally mounted crown for adjusting centre red hand, olivette above '22-23' for adjusting hour/minute hands via the crown, inside back signed and numbered Ulysse Nardin 715565
diameter 70mm
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This deck watch was commissioned by Oscar E. Batori of The Batori Computer Company Inc., New York. Three years before the watch's production, Batori had visited Ulysse Nardin in Le Locle, complaining that Swiss manufacturers were refusing to supply him with prototype deck chronometers designed specifically for air navigation. Ulysse Nardin accepted the challenge to produce a watch that would indicate civil and solar time on a 24-hour dial with additional hands to indicate the Greenwich hour angle, based on sidereal time, degree minutes and arc seconds. All hands were to be connected by direct gears and have one regulated escapement system. To accommodate the complications, the watchmakers at Ulysse Nardin had to calculate two different gear trains connected with a differential. In addition, a system similar to a hack feature was developed to block the balance wheel so that the time could be set to the exact second. In 1960, Ulysse Nardin were awarded Swiss Patent no. 345.604 for their 'Sun-Star' Deck Chronometer and the following year, 1961, received U.S. patent 2.969.636. In the U.K. a 'Sun-Star' chronometer was tested on the ground and in the air and passed the Royal Observatory's accuracy tests at Greenwich. As technology was rapidly developing in the early 1960s, the 'Sun-Star' deck watch's system was quickly outdated and consequently very few examples were produced.
The Batori Computer Company Inc. were specialists in the production of slide rules and other specialist navigational calculating equipment for use by pilots.