Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, Nov 11, 2012

LOT 495

BREITLING REF. H18841 PINK GOLD MULLINER TOURBILLON Breitling, for ?Bentley Motors - Mulliner Tourbillon?, movement No. 1884B039, Ref. H18841. Made in a very few examples only, production of this model started in 2005, sold on August 15th, 2006. Extremely fine, rare and unusual, heavy, oversized, waterresistant, 18K pink gold chronometer wristwatch with visible one-minute tourbillon regulator, round button 30-second chronograph, register, tachometer, date, slide-rule and an 18K pink gold Breitling bracelet with deployant clasp. Accompanied by a special fitted wooden box, COSC certificate, guarantee and booklet.

CHF 50,000 - 60,000

USD 53,000 - 65,000 / EUR 42,000 - 50,000

Sold: CHF 67,300

C. Three-body, solid, polished, bi-directional revolving reeded bezel to operate the slide-rule, lapidated lugs, transparent screwed down case back with burlwood veneer ring, screwed-down crown, sapphire crystals. D. Satiné brown with applied mother-of-pearl inlaid pink gold indexes and luminous dots, subsidiary dials for the date and the 15-minute register, outer 1/6th seconds and tachometer graduations, outermost revolving white slide-rule, aperture for the visible one-minute tourbillon regulator under a hobnail-decorated bridge. Luminous pink gold baton hands. M. Cal. 18B, rhodium-plated, fausses cotes and oeil-deperdrix decoration, 28 jewels, lateral lever escapement with one-minute tourbillon regulator with 3 equidistant polished steel arms, monometallic balance, shock absorber, selfcompensating Breguet balance spring. Dial, case and movement signed. Diam. 50 mm. Thickness: 15.5 mm. Approx. Overall length 22 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 1

As new
Dial: 1-01

As new

HANDS Original

Notes

What is a Tourbillon Regulator? A Tourbillon is a regulating mechanism in which the escapement of a movement is housed within a revolving carriage. It was developed in an effort to attain better precision. When a watch is in a vertical position, the force of gravity will speed the balance wheel as it moves in its downward (arc) direction and slow it as it moves upward, creating deviational errors of timekeeping. By placing the balance and escapement in a carriage that revolves 360° per minute, these errors become averaged and the timekeeping becomes constant and consequently adjustable. Created by Abraham Louis Breguet in 1795, the tourbillon is considered a diffi cult and complex achievement by any watch manufacturer.