Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Du Rhône, May 13, 2007

LOT 163

"Tourbillon Chronographe" Breguet, "Tourbillon Chronographe", No. 3206, Ref. 3577. Made in 2002. Very fine, rare and important, 18K pink gold gentleman?s wristwatch with visible oneminute tourbillon regulator, round button chronograph, registers and an 18K pink gold Breguet deployant clasp. Accompanied by a fitted box.

CHF 70,000 - 100,000

EUR 45,000 - 60,000 / USD 57,000 - 80,000

Sold: CHF 123,750

C. Two-body, solid, polished, reeded band, rounded bezel, straight lugs, transparent case back, gold screwed bars, sapphire crystals. D. Hand guilloché, silver with painted radial Roman numerals on outer plain reserves, outermost minute and 1/5th seconds track, 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. 554.2, 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: 2

Very good
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.