Important Watches, Collectors’ Wristw...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Nov 14, 2004

LOT 75

?Perpétuelle? J(oseph)Oudin, Eleve de Breguet, Rue Vivienne No. 7, No. 256/273, circa 1806. Exceptionally fine and equally rare 20K gold double-barrel self-winding perpétuelle pocket watch with quarter-repeating, à toc, 60-minute power reserve indication, and pin-wheel escapement with experimental balance.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

EUR 40,000 - 50,000 / USD 50,000 - 65,000

Sold: CHF 69,000

C. Four-body, massive, ?Empire?, by Tavernier, No. 2435, polished, reeded band, gilt brass hinged cuvette.D. White enamel by master dial-maker Borel, Breguet numerals, outer minute divisions, up-and-down sector at 6 o?clock. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 49.4 mm (21 1/2'''), gilt brass caliber, wound by ogival platinum weight swinging on a pivoted arm between two spring-loaded roller bumpers, winding both barrels simultaneously via wolf-tooth transmission with over-winding prevention mechanism, pin-wheel escapement with pins on both sides, unusual three-arm bimetallic balance with alternating brass spokes and white metal pins, flat blued-steel balance spring, repetition system with two hammers and two large rectangular gongs, activated via pull-and-twist piston in the pendant.Dial, movement and cuvette signed, case punched with Tavernier?s Master mark and French gold marks.Diam. 54 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 14 - 01

Notes

Provenance: Michel Louis Etienne Regnaud de Saint-Jean d?Angély and thereafter his family. In this watch Oudin employed a very rare double pinned wheel escapement and an experimental bimetallic balance in which brass spokes alternate with white metal pins, protruding all the way to the seat. Joseph Oudin was one of the Oudins working for Breguet. The records list him for the first time in 1796, working on what appears to be a predecessor of the subscription watch. The last entry lists him in 1801, when he worked on an interesting eight-day repeater. Most likely at that time he established his own business at Rue Vivienne No. 7, where he is listed in 1804. The highest serial number on a watch with a Rue Vivienne address is No. 250. From there he moved to Rue Feyeday No. 25. This must have been in 1811 or earlier because there is a chronograph watch No. 271 dated 1811 with this address. The few Joseph Oudin watches that have survived testify to his watchmaking skills. He made a few perpetuelle watches, some early chronograph watches, and watches with miniatures. Michel Louis Étienne, count Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély (1761-1819) was deputy to the States General in 1789. Under the Empire he enjoyed the confidence of Bonaparte, becoming state councillor, president of election in the state council, member of the Académie française, procureur général of the high court, and a count of the Empire. His son, Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angely, was Marshal of France.