Important Watches, Wristwatches and C...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 12, 1996

LOT 309

Mugnier, Horloger de 1'Empereur et Roi, No. 795, circa 1805. Very fine and rare 18I< gold, quarter repeating "Grande Sonnerie" clock-watch with special escapement.

CHF 25,000 - 30,000

Sold: CHF 31,050

C. Four body, massive, Empire, polished, by Amy Gros (Master mark). Hinged gilt brass cuvette. D. White enamel with Breguet numerals. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 22-, gilt brass, the going train with free standing barrel, detent-lever Robin's escapement, plain gold three-arm balance, Breguet "parachute" suspension, flat balance spring with compensation curb. Striking train with fixed barrel and revolving arbor, striking hours and quarters and repeating on gongs with button on the pendant. Signed on the dial and cuvette. In very good condition. Diam. 54 nun.


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Notes

This watch, very much in the style of Breguet, by Mugnier, the younger, watchmaker to the Emperor, and later to S.A.R. Monsieur, the brother of Louis XVIIL I-IC was working in Paris on the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs. Mugnier served his apprenticeship under Abraham Louis Breguet, and alongside his master and Charles Oudin (another pupil of Breguet), was the only maker capable of executing a watch of such a good quality, which can be compared with most of the best watches made by Breguet, although it was made from a blank of an entirely original design which was used by Breguet. Moreover, Mugnier used for this watch the Robin's detent-lever escapement, which he only used for his top quality production such as the wonderful Per petuelles, considered worldwide as even better than those made by his Master. hlvented by Robin in 1791, the detent-lever escapement, compared to regular spring or pivoted detent escapements, is less sensible to inertia.