Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong, Apr 23, 2006

LOT 359

?La Serenissima? Louis Audemars, à Genève. Made for the Italian market circa 1835. Very fine and very rare, 18K gold, two-train, painted on enamel, pearl and rose-cut diamond-set, quarter-repeating, Grande and Petite Sonnerie striking clockwatch.

C. Four-body, ?bassine et filets?, engine-turned band, hinged and sprung front cover decorated with a finely painted on enamel scene of the church of Santa Maria della Salute with boats on the water in the foreground, blue, red and white champlevé enamel border with pearl and rose diamond-set stylized leaves and flowers, the back cover finely painted with a view of a Venetian lagoon with ships and gondolas on the water, champlevé enamel, pearl and diamond-set border to match the front. Hinged gold engine-turned and florally engraved cuvette. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track. Blued steel ?Spade? hands. M. 50 mm., frosted gilt, 8 jewels, standing barrels for the going and striking trains, lateral lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with gold temperature and meantime adjustment screws, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, striking on four gongs on the hours and quarter-hours, strike/silent and Grande & Petite Sonnerie selection levers under the back cover at the edge of the cuvette, pump-wind quarter repeating activated by a pull and twist piston in the pendant. Cuvette signed. Diam. 58 mm.