Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, May 12, 2013

LOT 211

BREGUET ?GRAND COMPLICATION - TOURBILLON 1801-2001? WHITE GOLD Breguet, ?Grand Complication - Tourbillon 1801-2001?, No. 934, Ref. 1801. Made expressly in 2001 in a special edition to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the invention of the tourbillon by Abraham-Louis Breguet. Accompanied by the original Breguet fitted wooden box, loup, Certificates and instruction booklet. Extremely fine, rare and important, large, half-hunting-cased, waterresistant, 18K white gold wristwatch with visible one-minute tourbillon regulator and an 18K white gold Breguet deployant clasp.

CHF 65,000 - 85,000

HKD 540,000 - 700,000 / USD 70,000 - 90,000

C. Four-body, solid, polished and brushed, hinged guilloche 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, coin-edge band, straight lugs with gold-screwed bars, sapphire crystals. D. Silvered gold, guilloche eccentric radial chapter ring set within a silvered gold plate with fausses côtes decoration, engraved ?1801 - 2001?. Blued steel Breguet hands. At 6, the visible tourbillon cage under a polished steel bridge, carrying the blued steel seconds hand. M. Cal. 557, entirely hand-engraved and signed ?Tourbillon Breguet No. 1972 - Brevet du 7 Messidor an 9?, 21 jewels, lateral lever escapement with one-minute tourbillon regulator with 3 equidistant steel arms, monometallic balance adjusted to 6 positions, shock absorber, self-compensating Breguet balance spring. Dial, case and movement signed. DIAM. 42 mm. THICKNESS 11.5 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 1

As new
Movement: 1*

As new

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 1-01

As new

HANDS Original

Notes

BREGUET?S TOURBILLON 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 novel regulating device for watches, the Tourbillon. Technically an innovative and complex mechanism, 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 of Versailles in May 2002. The design of the movement follows in its construction in every detail the specifications laid down in the original patent documents by Breguet. From technical features to aesthetical ones, like the design of the famous Breguet hands, this rare timepiece continues the legacy of the most ingenious watchmaker of all times into the 21st century.