Centuries of Time: A Private Collection

Centuries of Time: A Private Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1363. A gold and enamel scallop-shaped cylinder watch with early keyless winding made for the Ottoman market Circa 1840, no. 13328.

Blondel & Melly, à Genève

A gold and enamel scallop-shaped cylinder watch with early keyless winding made for the Ottoman market Circa 1840, no. 13328

Auction Closed

May 14, 02:23 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 CHF

Lot Details

Description

Blondel & Melly, à Genève


A gold and enamel scallop-shaped cylinder watch with early keyless winding made for the Ottoman market

Circa 1840, no. 13328


• Movement: unsigned frosted gilded bar, ruby cylinder escapement, flat three-arm balance, blued steel regulation arm with bi-metallic compensation curb, standing barrel, gold cuvette with engraved border, scroll-work, movement details and aperture for hand-setting, cuvette signed and numbered Blondel & Melly, à Genève, no. 13328

• Dial: white enamel dial, Turkish numerals, outer minute ring, gilt Breguet hands, signed beneath 12 o'clock in Arabic script

• Case: gold scallop-form case, the back with 12 radiating lobed enamel segments painted en grisaille with garlands of flowers and allegories of love, art, music, geometry and agriculture, against a black enamel ground and bordered by opaque white enamel banding, the bezel similarly decorated, pendant and interior bezel decorated with black and white champlevé enamel, case back numbered 13328 with maker's mark FM in oval cartouche

• Chain: Breguet-style gold chain and matching ratchet key decorated with black and white champlevé enamel


diameter 50.5mm, chain approx. 170mm

R. Chadwick, A Voyage Through Time, London: Unicorn, 2020, pp. 144-145.
This watch incorporates an early form of keyless winding. Although a small number of keyless winding watches had been produced at the end of the 18th century, it was not until the second quarter of the 19th century that the quest to develop keyless systems gained in urgency and momentum. In Switzerland, a variety of keyless systems were produced, these included designs by Louis Audemars (1838), Adrien Philippe (1842), Antoine LeCoultre (1845) and G. Huguenin (1855).