A Monsieur le Comte le Moine Watch No. 231, entered into the books on 2 January 1793, sold for the sum of 800 Francs, the date of sale not recorded. Silver watch with "à toc" quarter-repeating and unusual month calendar for 31 days. Original Breguet silver short chain and key. | THE ART OF BREGUET | Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, 14th April 1991

THE ART OF BREGUET

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Apr 14, 1991

LOT 4

A Monsieur le Comte le Moine Watch No. 231, entered into the books on 2 January 1793, sold for the sum of 800 Francs, the date of sale not recorded. Silver watch with "à toc" quarter-repeating and unusual month calendar for 31 days. Original Breguet silver short chain and key.

CHF 22,000 - 26,000

Sold: CHF 27,600

Case: Two body, polished with gold rim, by Joly, No.222 (with the mark of the gold Général Jean François Kalandrin, and the date letter "P" for 1789).
Dial: White enamel, signed: "Breguet", with gilt Breguet numerals and concentric calendar ring ( hair crack and restoration). The calendar hand revolves anti-clockwise, with the number 0 following the 31st. day of the month, positioned below the winding square, and therefore forcibly reminding the user to advance the hand which would otherwise cover the aperture and prevent the watch being rewound. Blued-steel Breguet hands. Gilt dial plate signed: "Breguet àParis No. 231".
Movement: Gilt metal, full plate, signed: "Breguet A Paris No. 231", with turned pillars, verge escapement, three-arm plain brass balance, bric ge-cock pierced and engraved with floral scroll work with polished steel end-piece. Blued-steel flat balance spring. Repeating with two hammers striking directly on the case by depressing the pendant.

In good condition. Diam.53 mm.

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Notes

Note: The signature "Breguet à Paris" was used up until 1791, and the gilt numerals are a precursor of the style now generally called " Breguet numerals". The calendar mechanism although conventional in operation, provides an elegant solution, typical of Breguet, to the problem of the owner forgetting to reset the date at the end of the month according to the number of days therein. Later on Breguet found another answer to the same problem; the calendar counted 30 days with a "0" in place of the number "31", and the mechanism was constructed in such a way that the hand remained stationary over the "0" until the user advanced it by hand to the 1st day of the following month.