Important Watches, Collectors’ Wristw...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Nov 14, 2004

LOT 13

Pierre Benoit, Paris, circa 1808, finshed by A. Benoit à Versailles, No. 216, circa 1840. Very fine and very rare 20K gold pocket watch with double chronograph, with central dead-seconds and early lever escapement built on Breguet?s principles. Accompanied by a short gold chain and ratchet key.

CHF 28,000 - 33,000

EUR 18,000 - 21,000 / USD 22,000 - 26,000

Sold: CHF 35,650

C. Four-body, No. 836, by master casemaker Ami Gros, ?Empire?, engine-turned back with central enameled initials, reeded band, gold cuvette. D. White enamel, by Droz, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions with fifteen-minute Arabic markers, subsidiary sunk seconds. Gold Breguet hands. M. 48 mm (21''') frosted gilt, half-plate, jeweled to the center, fusee with Harrison?s maintaining power and chain, lateral calibrated lever escapement with draw, gold escape wheel with oil retention holes, 3-arm cut-bimetallic compensation balance with sliding gold temperature weights, Breguet balance spring, double roller, experimental balance staff, pare-chute on the top pivot, setting through the band, Breguet type central dead-seconds and chronograph on the subsidiary seconds.Dial and movement signed, case with casemaker?s marks and French guarantee marks used from 1798 to 1809. Diam. 53 mm.


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image
Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Notes

Achille-Hubert Benoit, born in 1804, was just a child when the watch was started by his father, who at the time was working for Breguet. After inheriting his father?s workshop, the son finished the movement, fitted it with a dial and sold it under his own name. The watch features many similarities to Breguet?s work: the dead-seconds mechanism, identical to that of Breguet; the escapement, typical of those used in Breguet?s ?garde temps?; as well as the casemaker, who often worked for Breguet. However, several features are not found in Breguet?s work: the experimental conical pivots of the balance staff; the gold escape wheel; the subsidiary seconds driven by an additional pinion which can be disengaged thereby allowing them to be used as a second chronograph or for precision time setting; and the hand set through the band via a small key. Achille-Hubert Benoit 1804-1895 was the son of watchmaker Pierre Benoit, who worked for Breguet. A highly skilled and respected watchmaker, in 1839 he was named director, along with Sicamoin, of the Manufacture Royale d?Horlogerie Française.