Important Collectors Watches, Pocket ...

Geneva, May 10, 2009

LOT 87

Monsieur Betancourt Breguet, No. 88. Sold to Monsieur Betancourt, an 6 (1798) for an unspecified sum. Made between an 4 and an 5 (1796 to 1797) at a cost of 1,378 Francs. Very fine and very rare, silver and gold clock watch with jump hours and grande sonnerie striking. To be sold without reserve

CHF 15,000 - 20,000

USD 13,000 - 17,000 / EUR 10,000 - 13,000

Sold: CHF 12,600

C. Four-body, ?bassine unique?, by Joly, No. 833, polished, gold hinge and strike activation/silence button in the pendant. Hinged silver cuvette. D. White enamel with Breguet numerals, outer minute track, slightly offset subsidiary seconds, secret signature below 12. Blued steel Breguet hands with open points. Gilt metal dial plate signed ?Breguet, No. 88?. M. 48 mm., 22''', full plate caliber, cylindrical pillars, two trains with spring barrels, cylinder escapement, three-arm brass balance, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, unpierced fourwheel Grande Sonnerie striking train striking on two gongs mounted inside the band, two-position milled gold button on the pendant rotated clockwise to allow the striking, anti-clockwise to silence the striking. Dial with secret signature, cuvette signed, case with Joly's Mastermark. Diam. 59 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3-16

Good

Rusted
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-31-01

Good

Transformations

HANDS Original

Notes

The Breguet records confirm that this watch was initially delivered in a gold case. However, the repair books remark that in February 1838, when it was returned for overhaul, at the request of Monsieur Mariano de la Pedrueza, it was fitted with a silver case by Breguet. According to the hallmarks, the case was made after April 1,1822. Breguet employed a button mounted on the pendant to operate several different forms of striking work on his earliest watches, and it is most likely the precursor for his invention of the pull-twist piston, later used for all the repeating watches. Furthermore, this watch is one of the earliest examples featuring a jump hour hand.