Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong, Apr 23, 2006

LOT 85

?The Fisherman? Fr(ançois) Achard à Genève. Made circa 1795. Very fine and unusual, 18K gold and painted on enamel quarter-repeating pocket watch with automaton jacks and automaton scene.

HKD 100,000 - 200,000

USD 13,000 - 25,000 / EUR 11,000 - 20,000

Sold: HKD 283,200

C. Two-body, "Directoire", polished back and bezels, engraved fluted band. D. Small, white enamel with Breguet numerals, outer minute divisions and Arabic quarter-hour numerals. Blued steel "spade" hands. The painted on enamel gold dial plate decorated with a rural landscape with two applied cherubs above the dial appearing to strike the hours and quarters on two bells, also driven by the repeating train by means of cams and levers, another automaton scene in three-colored gold, applied below the dial, shows a scene with a flowing river, an automaton fisherman with a fish on his line, and a revolving water wheel. M. Gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance-spring, gilt brass continental cock with polished steel end-piece, silver regulation dial, repeating on a bell mounted in the back of the case activated by depressing the pendant. Movement signed. Diam. 56 mm. To be sold without reserve


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

This watch was No. 59 in the Ruscitti Collection. Jean-François Achard The son of François, he was a master watchmaker. Originally from the Dauphiné region of France, he settled in Geneva and was made "habitant" in 1773. He was associated with his brother George until 1796, and is recorded as having made gold and enamel watches with automata, as well as watches with quarter repetition on bells. See: Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois, by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, Geneva, 1998.