Important Modern and Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, Mar 11, 2012

LOT 475

BREGUET AU CITOYEN FALSETY Breguet, No. 23, sold to Citoyen Falsety on 3 Vendémiaire, An 7 (September 24th, 1799), for 1,595 francs. Extremely fine and extremely rare, 20K gold ?repetition, echapt. isolé?, jump-hour, five minute-repeating à toc pocket watch with ruby cylinder escapement.

CHF 30,000 - 50,000

USD 33,000 - 55,000 / EUR 25,000 - 40,000

Sold: CHF 55,000

C. Three-body, ?early type?, no. 244, by Guillaume Mermillod (master mark), engine-turned, the back with central applied gold disc decorated with a blue enamel monogram, concealed hinge. Gilt brass dust cover. D. White enamel by F. Cave, Pl. Thionu, Breguet numerals, outer star minute indexes and lozenge quarter-hour indexes, secret signature. Blued steel ?Breguet? hands. M. 48 mm. (21 1/2???), gilt, Lépine caliber, standing barrel, overhanging ruby cylinder escapement, plain three-arm steel balance with parachute on the top pivot, blued steel fl at balance spring, index regulator with bimetallic temperature compensation curb, all-or-nothing repeating with a single hammer on the side of the case activated by depressing the pendant. Dial and dust cover signed. Diam. 56 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3-11

Good

Slightly worn
Movement: 2*

Very good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-71-73-01

Good

ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Hairlines

ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Chipped under bezel,not visible when closed

HANDS Original

Notes

In Breguet?s workbooks escapements are rarely specifi ed and the present watch is one of only a handful to be described as ?répétition garde-temps échappement isolé?. Breguet must have considered this watch to have suffi cient merit to be called ?garde-temps? ? a description reserved only for the fi nest timekeepers. Later the term ?garde-temps? applied only to watches with chronometer escapements and is usually only applicable to those. The movement of No. 23 is of the new caliber started in 1799 and is called the Lépine caliber after the the famous Parisian watchmaker Jean- Antoine Lépine. This watch is illustrated in ?The Art of Breguet?, George Daniels, 1975, p. 154.