Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong Kong, Oct 27, 2019

LOT 412

J. J. BADOLLET & CO. LARGE POCKET WATCH WITH MINUTE-REPEATER, CHRONOGRAPH WITH DÉDOUBLANTE (A KIND OF SPLIT-SECONDS), PERPETUAL CALENDAR WITH LEAP-YEARS INDICATION AND MOON PHASES, AM-PM INDICATION; 18K YELLOW GOLD

HKD 320,000 - 400,000

CHF 40,000 - 50,000 / USD 40,300 - 50,350

Sold: HKD 375,000

18K yellow gold, hunting-case, keyless-winding, round-shaped, large pocket watch, with subsidiary seconds at 6 and ten horological complications: • Minute-repeater on two steel gongs (activated by the slide at 6 o’clock) • 1/5 second chronograph (activated by the rectangular push-piece located on the case-band at 12 o’clock) • Dédoublante, a kind of split-seconds (second concentric central hand; activated by the same push-piece) • Half-instantaneous perpetual calendar • Date of the month (subsidiary dial at 6 o’clock) • Day of the week (subsidiary dial at 9 o’clock; indications given in English) • Month of the year (subsidiary dial at 3 o’clock; indications given in English) • Four-year cycle of leap-years (subsidiary dial at 3 o’clock) • Phases of the moon (aperture at 12 o’clock) • Diurnal (day-time) and nocturnal (night-time) hours with a 24-hour (AM-PM) scale (subsidiary dial at 9 o’clock) Cover and case-back polished.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Brand J. J. Badollet & Co., Geneva

Year Circa 1875

Calibre  20’’’, lever escapement

Case No. 88 165

Diameter 58.5 mm.

Signature Dial, case and movement

Accessories Contemporary fitted box

Notes

In the chronograph mechanism of this watch, the split-seconds is in fact a “dédoublante” (splitter). So, it’s a chronograph with the classic functions “start / stop / return to zero”, with, in addition, a second concentric hand which makes it possible to measure a single intermediate time. Only one button controls, in four stages, the various functions:
• First pressure: the two hands are engaged together and start their rotation.
• Second pressure: the so-called “rattrapante” (splitter) hand stops, it “splits” up so with the chronograph hand.
• Third pressure: the chronograph hand stops.
• Fourth pressure: the “dédoublante” (splitter) hand catches the chronograph hand; in the same fraction of a second the two hands return to zero. In a “classic” split-seconds chronograph, the second hand catches the chronograph hand and can be stopped again without stopping the me- chanism and the chronograph hand. If this last mechanism makes it possible to measure several intermediate times, it’s on the other hand built with two buttons of control; the split-seconds mechanism having its own column-wheel.
If this construction of Badollet saves the number of components (thus the cost of the movement) and reduces the functions of the split-seconds, it is nonetheless a technical feat of great reliability.

J. J. Badollet & Co.
Horologists and makers of watch cases, the company was registered on November 1, 1880, under the number 43.
They received the 1st prize at the Geneva Observatory contest for chronometry in 1872 (with 267.9 points out of 350), 1873 (with 229 points out of 350), 1874 (with 264 points out of 350) and in 1875 (with 213 points out of 350). In 1874, J. J. Badollet tied with H. R. Ekegrén for those contestants presenting a minimum of three chronometers.