Exceptional Discoveries: The Olmsted Complications Collection
Dent, London
A rare yellow gold hunting cased keyless perpetual calendar minute repeating chronograph watch with moon phases and retrograde date, No. 29475, 1880-81
Auction Closed
December 8, 10:03 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Movement: gilded three-quarter-plate Nicole, Nielsen & Co. movement with Adolphe Nicole patent keyless winding and hand-setting, ratchet-tooth lever escapement, bi-metallic compensation balance, blued steel hairspring with overcoil, diamond endstone, two polished steel hammers repeating on coiled gongs, main plate engraved Dent Watchmaker to the Queen 33, Cockspur Street, London Patent No. 29475
Dial: white enamel dial, Roman numerals, three recessed subsidiary dials indicating day, months and constant seconds combined with aperture for moon phases, sector for retrograde date, blued steel central chronograph seconds, signed and numbered Dent, 3 Cockspur Street, London, 29475
Case: 18k yellow gold, chronograph pusher and repeating slide to the band, olivette beside pendant for hand-setting, nibs for calendar/moon correction to bezel, both covers with London hallmarks for 1880-81 and stamped CN, EN in square cartouche with cut corners for Charles Nicole & Emil Nielsen, numbered 29475
Signed: dial and movement signed Dent, case with CN, EN mark for Charles Nicole and Emil Nielsen, trading as Nicole, Nielsen & Co.
Diameter: 55 mm
It is extremely rare to find a retrograde date indication incorporated into an English watch of this period.
Adolphe Nicole began supplying watches to Dent in 1843 and, in October 1844, applied for his patent for a special keyless winding and hand-setting system (patent no. 10,348), which was granted on 12 April 1845. An extremely important development for the firm, it is this form of keyless winding and hand-setting that is found in the present watch. In 1862, Adolphe Nicole was also granted patent no. 1461 for ‘Nicole’s improvements in stop-watches and timekeepers’ and, thereafter, chronographs would become one of the firm’s principal specialities.