Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong, Apr 23, 2006

LOT 86

?The Forge? C.H., Genève, No. 34738. Made circa 1800. Very fine and rare, 18K gold pocket watch with automata.

C. Two-body, ?Directoire?, polished, glazed back. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track with gilt five minute markers and Arabic quarter hour numerals. Gold ?spade? hands. Automaton dial finely painted on enamel with a Swiss landscape, the varicolored chased gold automata comprising two blacksmiths in a forge, one figure operating the furnace bellows, the other hammering work on the anvil, automaton fountain at the side, grassy foreground with a dog, cartwheel, horseshoes and tools. M. 50 mm., frosted gilt, full plate, inverted train, fusee and chain, verge escapement with micrometric potence adjustment, brass three-arm balance mounted between the front plate and the dial, flat blued steel balance spring, regulation lever in the dial plate, the automata train constructed in the manner of a repeating train and activated by depressing the pendant. Movement stamped CH on the front plate. Case punched PIG beneath a crown and numbered 8348. Diam. 57 mm. To be sold without reserve