Important Collector's Wristwatches, P...

Grand Havana Room, May 26, 2004

LOT 294

"Breguet à Versailles", Grand Complication "Tourbillon 1801-2001", No. 24/28, Ref. 1801BB. Produced expressly in a limited edition of 28 examples in 2001 to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the invention of the tourbillon by Abraham-Louis Breguet. Extremely fine, rare and important, large, hunter case-type, water-resistant, 18K white gold gentleman's wristwatch with visible one-minute tourbillon regulator and an 18K white gold Breguet deployant clasp. Accompanied by a fitted box, tourbillon certificate and a Breguet loupe.

USD 70,000 - 90,000

EUR 60,000 - 76,000

Sold: USD 156,500

C. Four-body, solid, polished and brushed, hinged hand-guilloché cover with porthole and engraved "Tourbillon" plaque, opened by a co-axial push-button in the winding crown, transparent case back to view the movement, reeded band, straight lugs with gold-screwed bars, sapphire crystals. D. White enamel, off-center dial with painted radial Breguet numerals and marked "1801-2001". Secret Breguet signature,"Breguet" blued steel hands. At 6, the visible tourbillon cage under a polished steel bridgecarrying the blued steel subsidiary seconds hand.M. Cal. 557 entirely hand-engraved and signed "Tourbillon Breguet Nr. 1887. Brevet du 7 Messidor an 9", 21 jewels, lateral lever escapement with one-minute tourbillon regulator with 3 equidistant polished steel arms, monometallic balance adjusted to 6 positions, shock-absorber, self-compensating Breguet balance-spring.Dial, case and movement signed.Diam. 42 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 1

As new
Movement: 1

As new
Dial: 1 - 01

Notes

The ?Breguet à Versailles Tourbillon 1801-2001? limited edition was produced in a total of 66 pieces, made as follows: - 28 examples in white gold with enamel dial - 28 examples in pink gold with enamel dial - 10 examples in platinum with guilloché silver dial. On June 26, 1801 - or according to the short-lived Republican calendar of the time, 7 Messidor, year IX - A. L. Breguet received a patent from the French Ministry of the Interior for a new regulating device for watches, the Tourbillon. An innovative and technically complex mecha-nism, only 35 watches of this kind were sold between 1805 and 1823, the year of Breguet's death. For the 200th anniversary of his patent, the Breguet company introduced this model at the "Chateau de Versailles" in May of 2000. The design of the movement follows in its construction in every detail the specifications from the original patent documents by Breguet. From both the technical and the esthetic points of view (one of the noteworthy is the design of the famous Breguet hands) this rare timepiece continues the legacy of the most ingenious watchmaker of all time, taking it into the 21st century.