The Mondani Collection of Rolex Wrist...

Geneva, May 14, 2006

LOT 775

?Wooden Watch Movement? Austria, circa 1790. Fine and very rare, gilt brass pocket watch with boxwood movement.

CHF 6,000 - 10,000

EUR 3,800 - 6,500 / USD 4,600 - 8,000

Sold: CHF 6,490

C. Two-body, ?bassine?, gilt brass, polished. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions and Arabic five minute numerals. Fancy pierced gilt brass hands. M. 48 mm., wooden, full plate, wooden fusee and barrel, wooden wheel train with steel pinions, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, blued steel flat balance spring, continental balance cock pierced with the Austro-Hungarian double-headed eagle, wooden regulation dial with blued steel hand. Diam. 60 mm. To be sold without reserve


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 4-16

Fair

Rusted
Movement: 3**

Good

Repair required, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-29-01

Good

Lacking elements

HANDS Original

Notes

The movement of this watch is of a type made in western Europe during the second half of the 18th century, predominantly in bone, ivory, or boxwood, and always with full-plate movements. Almost a century later, the Bronnikov family of watchmakers working in Vjatka, Russia, made quite distinctive watches whose movements are usually made of wood. and bone, and the reverse of whose dial forms the frontplate for the wheel train in the bar caliber style. See lot 743 for a watch attributed to the Bronnikov family and a note on their work.