Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, May 12, 2013

LOT 404

TRIPLE DATE CALENDAR & MOON PHASE QUARTER REPEATING WATCH Lepine, Place des Victoires 2, Paris, No. 18965, the movement Swiss. Made circa 1880. Very fine and rare, quarter-repeating, large and heavy 18K pink gold hunting cased keyless pocket watch with triple date calendar, ?digital? months and moon phases.

CHF 10,000 - 15,000

HKD 83,000 - 125,000 / USD 10,500 - 16,000

C. Four-body, bassine et filets, polished, the front cover with applied pink gold Ducal coat of arms, the back cover engraved with foliate monogram ?JE? beneath a ducal coronet. Hinged gold cuvette. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and red five-minute numerals, subsidiary dials for the seconds, date and days of the week, apertures for the moon phases and months. Blued steel spade hands. M. 19???, matte gilt, 29 jewels, wolf ?s tooth winding, counterpoised straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel balance spring with overcoil, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band. Cuvette signed. DIAM. 52 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 2*

Very 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 in extremely good condition and of very high quality. The movement with high number of jewels is of Swiss manufacture and finished by the highly respected Paris maker Bourdin. The movement is a highly unusual caliber with three trains, barrels for both the going and striking trains and a further independent train for the minute-repeating which is activated by a slide in the band. In almost all other clockwatches with minute-repeating the minute-repeating is activated by a trip button or small slide which takes its power from the striking train barrel. The arrangement in the present watch therefore allows the striking train a greater length of duration without winding as the repeating mechanism takes no power from the striking barrel but is powered independently by the action of the slide in the same way as a standard repeating watch. A.E. Bourdin was a mid-19th century Paris maker. The Tribune Chronométrique of 1850 says that his timekeepers ?are not only very well finished and presented in all their details, but are also excellent timekeepers and this despite the many complications which they embody?.