Property from a branch of the Breguet family
A 20ct gold half-quarter-repeating open-faced watch with date and jumping hours
Breguet et Fils No. 2814 | Sold to Mr Hay on 4 August 1817 for Fr. 2,318
Auction Closed
November 9, 08:49 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 60,000 CHF
Lot Details
Description
23’’’ gilded movement, cylinder escapement now with steel shell, plain three-arm balance with parachute suspension, spiral steel hairspring with compensation curb and blued steel regulator, repeating train with partially exposed blued steel spring, racks beneath dial, polished steel hammer striking intermediary hammer to repeat on single coiled gong
silver dial engine-turned centre à grain d’orge, satin finished chapter rings with black Roman numerals and pearled outer minute ring, chapters with crémaillère borders, eccentric subsidiary dials for date at X and seconds at V with Arabic/pearled chapter rings, subsidiaries with damier guilloché pattern and inner crémaillère borders, Breguet hands, angled cartouche at 6 o’clock signed Breguet et [fils obscured by seconds chapter]
20ct gold Tavernier engine-turned case and band à grains d’orge, case back centred by small vacant circular cartouche, repeating piston to the band between I and II, hinged gold cuvette signed and numbered Breguet No. 2814 and with crémaillère borders, case back interior numbered B 2814, T 3469, Paris assay and discharge marks comprising baby’s head 2 in irregular cartouche (2nd standard gold 840/1000), cockerel with raised head drinking 2 in irregular octagonal frame (840/1000, 1809-1819), lion’s head facing right excise mark in round cartouche (1809-1819), case maker’s mark MAB beneath a triangle in lozenge shaped cartouche for Tavernier workshop
Measurements
diameter 57.5mm
case depth 13.9mm
weight 122.6g
Accompaniments
with a Breguet 250th anniversary certificate
Dr. J. C. Nixon.
Sotheby & Co. London, 8 July 1963, lot 22 sold for £850 ($2,380) to Schollett.
Purchased from the above.
Daniels, George, The Art of Breguet, London & New York: Sotheby Parke, Bernet, 1975, p. 229, figs. 248.
Breguet devised a special jump-hour mechanism that appears in some of his repeating watches. Ingeniously, the hour hand advances in almost seamless jumps from one hour to the next rather than moving gradually across the dial. On the dial, this activation becomes visible only in the final minutes before the change, with the decisive jump occurring precisely at the hour. To achieve this effect, the usual motion work is dispensed with; instead, the hour hand is mounted on a wheel directly coupled to the star wheel of the hour snail. With each revolution of the quarter snail, the star wheel advances by one tooth, and because the hour wheel is linked to it, the hand moves forward in discreet jumps to mark the successive hours.
In the Sotheby & Co. auction in 1963, this watch was sold together with certificate no. 3019, on the back of which was the following interesting addition:
'En cas d'accident de mes montres, on peut s'adresser
à Constantinople chez Mr. LeRoy à Vera les Constantinople
à St. Petersbourg, chez Mr. Winham chez MM. les Frères Livier
à Moscou chez Mr. Ferrier
à Madrid chez Mr. Charost
à Londres chez Mr. Fatton, chez Mr. Fleschetter, New Bond Str. no. 92'.