Important collector's watches, wristw...

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Apr 13, 2002

LOT 225

Breguet et Fils, No. 769, used as a Breguet Company Regulator, begun in 1855, finished in 1874. Very fine and unique one year-going center-seconds floor regulator beating seconds, accompanied by a certificate.

CHF 80,000 - 100,000

EUR 55,000 - 68,000 / USD 48,000 - 60,000

Sold: CHF 256,500

C. Mahogany, rectangular cresting above molded cornice, the trunk with paneled front door with lock with a pin-hole opening, paneled veneered plinth mounted over molded base. D. Circular, silvered and matted, radial Roman hour chapter, outer minute/seconds divisions, winding aperture above 6 o?clock. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. Rectangular, 13 x 13 cm, brass, heavy single weight, five-wheel train, dead-beat Graham escapement, escape wheel set on the back plate, heavy cylinder pendulum bob mounted to wooden rod, suspended from a double suspension spring mounted to a heavy iron cast bracket fixed to the case, micrometric beat adjustment on the rod. Signed on the dial Breguet et Fils, the movement stamped ?Souscription, Aimé Jacob?. Dim. Height 190 cm, base width 50 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2

Very good
Dial: 2-01

Very good

HANDS Original

Notes

According to Emmanuel Breguet, Curator of the Breguet Museum and Archives, the work on the clock started in 1855 based on an ebauche by Aimé Jacob, it was interrupted in 1871 and finished in 1874. In the advertisement for his clocks Jacob describes himself as pupil of Berthoud and Breguet. It is interesting to notice that the movement, bearing Jacob?s mark, does not have his serial number (only Breguet?s number on the dial), which one would expect to be engraved in the center of the mark, after the ?No?. It clearly indicates that the clock was not from his production line, but a special one, possibly destined for his former master. It is not rare to find a Breguet clock based on a design of one of his pupils, after all they had been trained according to his perception of clockmaking when they worked for him directly, their products then did not differ much from the ones they produced on their own. Jacob became famous for his one year-going clocks, which were very rare before the last quarter of the 19th century. They became popular only after the invention of the torsion pendulum