Important Collectors Watches, Pocket ...

Geneva, Mar 29, 2009

LOT 179

Tourbillon Chronograph Audemars Piguet, Genève, "Jules Audemars", "Tourbillon, Chronograph", movement No. 505275, case No. E 61260, Ref. 25909OR. Very fine and rare, large, 18K pink gold wristwatch with visible one-minute tourbillon regulator, round button chronograph, register and an 18K pink gold Audemars Piguet deployant clasp. Accompanied by the original fitted box, certificate and instruction booklet.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

USD 50,000 - 70,000 / EUR 40,000 - 55,000

Sold: CHF 66,000

C. Three-body, solid, polished and brushed, stepped bezel, straight lugs, transparent case back, sapphire crystals. D. Off-white with pink gold radial Roman numerals, outer minute/second division, 30-minute register at 3, aperture for the tourbillon regulator under a polished steel bridge at 6, carrying the seconds hand. Pink gold skeleton feuille hands. M. Cal. 2879/1, rhodium-plated, fausses cotes decoration, 30 jewels, lateral lever escapement with one-minute tourbillon regulator with steel cage and 3 equidistant polished steel arms, monometallic balance adjusted to heat, cold and 5 positions, self-compensating Breguet balance spring. Dial, case and movement signed. Diam. 43 mm. Thickness 13 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 1

As new

Movement: 1

As new

Dial: 1-01

As new

HANDS Original

Notes

What is a Tourbillon?
A Tourbillon is a regulating mechanism in which the escapement of a movement is housed within a revolving carriage. It was developed in an effort to attain better precision. When a watch is in a vertical position, the force of gravity will speed the balance wheel as it moves in its downward (arc) direction and slow it as it moves upward, creating deviational errors of timekeeping. By placing the balance and escapement in a carriage that revolves 360° per minute, these errors become averaged and the timekeeping becomes constant and consequently adjustable. Created by Abraham Louis Breguet in 1795, the tourbillon is considered a difficult and complex achievement by any watch manufacturer.