Important Collectors’ Wristwatches Po...

New York, Mar 15, 2006

LOT 210

"Tourbillon Chronographe" Breguet, "Tourbillon Chronographe", No. 6703, Ref. 3577. Made circa 2000. Very fine, rare and important, 18K yellow gold gentleman?s wristwatch with visible one-minute tourbillon regulator, round button chronograph, registers and an 18K yellow gold Breguet deployant clasp. Accompanied by a fitted box and certificate.

USD 55,000 - 65,000

EUR 46,000 - 55,000

C. Two-body, solid, polished, reeded band, rounded bezel, straight lugs, transparent case back, gold screwed bars, sapphire crystals. D. "Guilloché" silver with painted radial Roman numerals on an outer plain reserve, subsidiary dials for the 30-minute and 12- hour registers, aperture for the tourbillon cage at 12 under a polished two-arm steel bridge, subsidiary seconds hand on the tourbillon shaft. Blued steel "Breguet" hands. M. Cal. 554, rhodium-plated, "fausses côtes" decoration, 25 jewels, lateral lever escapement, one-minute tourbillon regulator with 3 equidistant polished steel arms, monometallic balance adjusted to 6 positions, self-compensating Breguet balance spring. Dial, case and movement signed, movement also engraved: ?Brevet Du 7 Messidor An 9?. Diam. 38 mm. Thickness 11 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 1-01

As new

HANDS Original

Notes

What is a Minute Repeater? A minute repeating watch tells the time both visually and audibly. A slide on the side of the case, usually near the 9, will activate two hammers in the movement. These hammers strike two gongs curled within the case. First one hammer strikes a gong of lower tonality; it will count out the hours. Then both hammers will strike both gongs alternatively to count out the quarter hours after that hour, and then the second hammer alone striking a gong of higher tonality will count out the minutes after that quarter hour. The repeating mechanism was developed by Daniel Quare. In 1687, he had patented a mechanism that sounded the hours and the quarter hours. The early repeaters used bells. At the end of the 18th century, two bent-wire gongs became the more popular mechanism. In 1892, the first minute repeater wristwatch was produced by Omega, a model with a round-shaped case.