Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces
Monaco, Jan 19, 2023
LOT 6
FRÉDÉRIC LOUIS FAVRE-BULLE
POCKET WATCH, RACK-LEVER ESCAPEMENT, 15-SECOND SUBSIDIARY DIAL; SILVER
EUR 6,000 - 12,000
USD 6,500 - 12,900 / HKD 51,000 - 102,000 / CHF 6,000 - 11,900
Silver, open-face, key-winding, round-shaped, “Consular” pocket watch, with subsidiary seconds at 6 for 15 seconds and special escapement.
Case-back polished.
White enamel dial with radial revolving Arabic numerals; blued steel “Spade” hands.
Movement 20’’’, full plate, fire gilded brass, turned baluster pillars, fusee and chain, maintaining power, rack-lever escapement (escape-wheel with 30 teeth), monometallic three-arm balance (polished steel) and blued steel flat hairspring, engraved gilded English cock inscribed “1re Classe”, large diamond end-stone in a blued steel setting, blued steel index regulator; gilded brass sprung dust ring.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: AAA |
Excellent |
Case: 3 |
Good |
Movement: 3* |
Good Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense |
Dial: 3-01 |
Good HANDS Original |
Brand Frédéric Louis Favre-Bulle, Le Locle
Model “1re Classe”
Year circa 1820-1830
Movement No. unnumbered
Case No. 3 630 (by “LD•I”, Neuchâtel mountains; with British prestige hallmarks)
Material silver
Diameter 57 mm.
Caliber 20’’’, rack-lever escapement (escape-wheel with 30 teeth)
Weight 143.5 gr.
Signature movement
Notes
The “rack-lever” escapement
This form of “rack-lever” escapement was invented by Peter Litherland (1756-1804) in 1791 (British Patent No. 1 889, dated December 6, 1792, for a “form of pirouette lever escapement").
The term “pirouette” comes from Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) who was the first to use it. In a pirouette the balance makes several revolutions during a single impulse. This allows for a long period and consequently for dead-beat seconds. The first form of “rack-lever” escapement is said to have been invented by Abbé Jean de Hautefeuille (1647-1724) in Paris around 1720.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the watchmakers of the Litherland, Whiteside & Co. and those of the Roskell, Tobias and Massey families of Liverpool contributed greatly to the spread of this escapement in pocket watches with the seconds hand in the centre or with a subsidiary seconds dial subdivided not into 60 but into 15 seconds. Some London watchmakers also used it in the first quarter of the 19th century, sometimes in pocket watches without a seconds hand.
The example we present here is by Frédéric-Louis Favre-Bulle (1770-1849), one of the most important chronométriers (precision watchmakers) in the history of Swiss horology and more specifically that of Le Locle (Neuchâtel Mountains), a contemporary of Jacques-Frédéric Houriet (1743-1830) and Urban Jürgensen (1776-1830).