Centuries of Time: A Private Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 1370. A very rare, fine and large quarter repeating watch with indications for sunrise, sunset, month and date Circa 1820, no. 2134.

Courvoisier & Comp.

A very rare, fine and large quarter repeating watch with indications for sunrise, sunset, month and date Circa 1820, no. 2134

VAT applies to hammer price and buyer's premium

Auction Closed

May 14, 02:23 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 10,000 CHF

Lot Details

Description

Courvoisier & Comp.

A very rare, fine and large quarter repeating watch with indications for sunrise, sunset, month and date

Circa 1820, no. 2134

• Movement: gilded full plate, going barrel, cylinder escapement, plain three-arm balance, unusual skeletonised balance bridge, ruby end-stone, repeating mechanism partially visible to the backplate, signed Courvoisier & Comp.

• Dial: white enamel chapter ring with Arabic numerals, gold centre chased and engraved with foliage and swags, champlevé enamel urn on pedestal to centre, inverted heart-form aperture for sunrise and sunset, the duration of the day lengthening and shortening by way of a rising and falling blued steel plate, two subsidiary dials with white enamel rings for months and date, signed to the base Courvoisier et Comp.

• Case: 18ct gold, engine-turned case back, milled band, polished bezels, plunge pendant repeat, glazed cuvette, inside backstamped FHM incuse and numbered 2134

diameter 59mm

R. Chadwick, A Voyage Through Time, London: Unicorn, 2020, pp. 339.

Most unusually the inverted heart-form aperture beneath 12 o'clock displays the periods of day and night with indication for sunrise and sunset. Beneath the dial, a blued steel plate rises and falls throughout the year to alter the display of the daytime hours with its blazing sun motif. As the plate rises, so the area of the sun disc displaying the period of daytime is reduced. A very similar watch was offered at Antiquorum Geneva, 15 & 16 March 2008, lot 550.