Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong - Kong, Oct 09, 2010

LOT 334

Retrograde Perpetual Calendar & Double Moon Phases Attributed to Marius LeCoultre, Genève, No. 15464. Made circa 1890. Extremely fine and equally rare, 18K rose gold, huntingcased, keyless pocket watch with perpetual calendar, retrograde date, symmetrical double moon phases and gold wheel train.

HKD 120,000 - 250,000

USD 15,500 - 32,000 / EUR 12,000 - 25,000

Sold: HKD 200,000

C. Four-body, ?bassine?, polished, correctors for the moon phases and the date in the band. Hinged gold cuvette. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic five-minute numerals, subsidiary dials for the months, days of the week and seconds, double aperture for the moon phases flanking the 12, retrograde date sector below. Blued steel spade hands. M. 20???, rhodium-plated, striped and spiral decoration, 17 jewels, some in screwed gold chatons, wolf?s tooth winding, escape wheel upper pivot with gold cap, gold wheel train, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, large diameter cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with overcoil, index regulator. Case numbered Diam. 55 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-70-01

Good

ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Hairline

HANDS Original

Notes

The present watch is of extremely high quality and is particularly interesting because it exhibits a very rarely found and sophisticated horological feature. The perpetual calendar with retrograde date is extremely uncommon and was made by very few workshops, among them Breguet and LeCoultre. The maker Marius LeCoultre specialized in pocket watches with retrograde date and perpetual calendar and it is very likely that the maker of this watch was Marius LeCoultre. The symmetrical double moon phase aperture is also a very rare feature requiring a special moon phase disc with four ?faces?. It is very ingenious to have found space for a moon phase aperture within the confines of the dial whilst still allowing space for the numeral XII.
Marius LeCoultre A watchmaker and repairer as well as a dealer in fine watches. This highly reputed firm, founded in 1848, made complicated watches of superior quality. LeCoultre perfected a chronograph with vertical displacement of the engagement wheel. He received an honorable mention at the Geneva "concours de chronométrie" in 1887. He showed complicated and precision watches at the Chicago Universal Exhibition of 1893, and also took part in the National Exhibition in Geneva in 1896.