Important Watches Wristwatches, and C...

The Furama Hotel Hong Kong, Victoriana Room, Jun 05, 2000

LOT 173

Breguet, No. 5038, Très petite, simple excentrique pour bracelet, sold to Monsieur le Comte A. Demidoffon October 13, 1832, for 4200 Francs.Rare and important, very slim, 18K gold early keyless miniature watch, construite sur le principe des garde-temps; one of only 16 examples. Suspended from a later gold bar brooch, in a Desouter red morocco fitted box.

HKD 400,000 - 480,000

USD 50,000 - 60,000

Sold: HKD 636,000

C. Three-piece, ?quatre baguettes?, engine-turnedà grains d?orge. D. Gold engine-turned, eccentric chapter ring with Roman numerals. Gold Breguet hands. M. 7??? (16 mm.), gilt brass with all steel bridges, bar calibre, 18 jewels, keyless winding and hand-setting, five wheel train, counterpoised straight line lever escapement, two-arm blued steel and platinum balance with elastic suspension on both pivots, flat balance spring with index regulator.Signed on the dial, numbered on the front plate.Accompanied by Certificate No. 4131, delivered by Breguet on January 6, 1998.Diam. 18 mm.Thickness 4 mm.Total weight: 6.23 grams.Weight of movement 1,8 grams.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good

Movement: * 3
Dial: 3 - 5 - 04

Notes

Louis Desoutter, Breguet?s agent in London, 4 Hanover Street, London W1.According to the certificate, the watch was originally delivered with a bangle (now lacking), made by the jeweller Fossin (successor of Nitot and predecessor of Chaumet). It was bought back by Breguet in 1836 and resold under No. 232 on October 1837, to Comte de Toréno for 3000 Francs.Previously in the collection of Sir David Lionel Salomons,this watch is described in his book: Breguet (1747-1823), 1923,pp. 64-65 and 214.Also described and illustrated by George Daniels in The Art of Breguet, Sotheby, Park Bernet, 1975, p. 291, fig. 369 a-c.This is without question the smallest watch with keyless winding and hand-setting produced by any firm before the advent of the wristwatch in the late 19th century. As such it represents an important step in the development of the modern mechanical wristwatch, and would appear to confirm that the firm of Breguet was the inventor of the combined keyless winding and hand-setting through the crown.Although only 16 examples were made, their appearance must have caused a sensation amongst Breguet?s clientele, for virtually all were sold to his most important and prestigious customers. The majority were in fact made to be fitted into a ring or bracelet, and on a certificate supplied with an identical watch, under No. 5019, the following is written (translated):?... this work is the best that it is possible to do, being the most unusual and the most perfect of its type. Platinum is used for the balance as it is the metal with the least expansion, it being impossible to fit a compensation balance into a watch of such small size?.The first sold appears to be No. 4951, made for a bracelet and sold to the Marquess of Londonderry, on September 23, 1831, for3000 Francs, which was followed by two watches bearing the identical number, 5019, one made for a ring and sold for 3000 Francs to Madame Baudin on December 24, 1831, and the other sold to the Comte Merislas Potocki for 3800 Francs on March 29, 1833.Following are the other examples:- No. 5037, for a ring, sold for 3100 Francs, to Madame Baudin on October 2, 1832.- No. 5038, for a bracelet, sold for 4200 Francs, to Monsieur le Comte Demidoff on October 13, 1832.- No. 5039, sold for 3000 Francs, to Monsieur le Baron Schickler on December 30, 1831.- No. 5078, for a ring, sold for 3100 Francs, to Madame Baudin on April 13, 1833.- No. 5079, sold for 2900 Francs, to the young Infanta of Spain on March 5, 1833.- No. 5080, for a ring, sold for 3000 Francs, to Monsieur le Comte Demidoff on May 31, 1832.- No. 5102, set with diamonds, sold for 4250 Francs, to Her Majesty Queen Victoria of England on July 17, 1838.- No. 5114, for a ring, sold for 3500 Francs, to the Marquise Viconti Gherardini on August 31, 1833, bought back, and resold to the Grande Duchesse Marie de Leichtenberg on August 26, 1839.- No. 4, for a bracelet, sold for 4000 Francs, by Wenham on July 13, 1836.- No. 5, sold for 3600 Francs with a rebate of 600 Francs, to Breguet (père) on January 3, 1845.- No. 6, for a seal/ring, and No. 7, were the two sold for 3000 and 4000 Francs respectively, to Monsieur le Comte de Fersen, respectively on October 15 and October 16, 1835.- No. 9, for a bracelet, sold for 3500 Francs, to Charles Blom.Similar watches were sold by Antiquorum in Geneva on April 14, 1991, (The Art of Breguet), lot 95, and in October 20, 1991, lot 263.