Important Collectors Watches, Pocket ...

New York, Jun 18, 2008

LOT 315

Minute-Repeater - Perpetual Calendar Franck Muller, Geneve, "Minute-Repeater - Perpetual Calendar?, No. 03. Made in the 2000?s. Extremely fine and rare, astronomic, minute-repeating, 18K yellow gold wristwatch with perpetual calendar, moon phases, and an 18K yellow gold Franck Muller buckle.

USD 75,000 - 100,000

EUR 48,000 - 65,000

Sold: USD 84,000

C. Three-body, solid, polished, transparent case back, straight and rounded lugs, sapphire crystals. D. Satiné silver with printed radial Roman numerals on an outer plain reserve, guilloché ring dials for the days, week, the leap year, 24 hours, aperture for the moon phases, graduated sector for the ?couple de sonnerie?. Blued steel spade hands. M. Cal. 14???, rhodium-plated, fausses cotes decoration, 30 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, monometallic balance, shock absorber, self-compensating Breguet balance spring. Dial and movement signed, numbered on the case. Diam. 36 mm. Thickness 13 mm. Repeating on gongs by means of a slide on the band.


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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 Minute Repeater? Aminute repeating watch tells the time both visually and audibly. A slide on the side of the case, usually near the 9, will activate two hammers in the movement. These hammers strike two gongs curled within the case. First one hammer strikes a gong of lower tonality; it will count out the hours. Then both hammers will strike both gongs alternatively to count out the quarter hours after that hour, and then the second hammer alone striking a gong of higher tonality will count out the minutes after that quarter hour. The repeating mechanism was developed by Daniel Quare. In 1687, he had patented a mechanism that sounded the hours and the quarter hours. The early repeaters used bells. At the end of the 18th century, two bent-wire gongs became the more popular mechanism. In 1892, the first minute repeater wristwatch was produced by Omega, a model with a round-shaped case.