Important Watches, Collectors’ Wristw...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Nov 14, 2004

LOT 84

A Monsieur le Comte de Noailles Breguet et Fils, No. 4156, sold to the Comte de Noailles on May 24, 1824 for 3,150 francs. Very fine and rare, small 18K gold and silver pocket watch with jump-hour hand and half quarter- repeating.

CHF 35,000 - 45,000

EUR 23,000 - 30,000 / USD 28,000 - 35,000

Sold: CHF 34,500

C. Four-body, by master casemaker Tavernier, "forme quatre baguettes", gold with silver band, the whole engine-turned, the back engraved with the Count de Noailles? coat of arms, gold cuvette with bayonette fixing. D. Silver, by Tavernier, champlevé radial Roman numerals, outer minute dot divisions, engine-turned center, sunk subsidiary seconds between V and VI. Gold Breguet hands. M. 38 mm (17'''), frosted gilt, bar caliber, hanging barrel, jeweled to the center, ruby cylinder escapement, three-arm gold balance, blued steel flat balance spring, Breguet repetition system, repeating on single gong by pull-and-twist piston on the band at 2 o?clock.Dial and cuvette signed, case, dial, movement, and cuvette with the same serial number.Diam. 43 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3 - 20
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 6 - 01

Notes

The difference between the cost of a watch with a regular-sized movement and one with a small one was surprisingly great. Only the wealthiest could afford to purchase a small watch. The present watch cost about 40 percent more than an ordinary repeater, due to its small size and high finish- it is jeweled to the center, has a jump hour-hand, and the best possible repetition system for the time. Antonin Claude Dominique de Noailles (1777-1846) Count de Noailles, Prince-Duc de Poix, Duc de Mouchy, ?pair de France?, and a Spanish grandee in 1834, he was a Minister of Louis XVIII. On April 11, 1803, he married Melanie de Talleyrand-Perigord, a niece of the famous Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, Minister of Foreign Affairs under Napoleon and Louis XVIII.