Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Du Rhone, Apr 02, 2006

LOT 396

?Deck Chronometer? Kessels, Altona, No. 1303. Made circa 1830. Very fine, silver, pocket and deck chronometer in three-tier mahogany fitted display box.

CHF 25,000 - 35,000

108 16,000 - 22,000

C. Four-body, "bassine et filets", polished. Silver hinged cuvette. D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, five-minute Arabic numerals, large subsidiary seconds at 12. Blued steel "Breguet" hands. M. 51 mm (22'''), full plate, frosted gilt, cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain with Harrison?s maintaining power, Earnshaw type spring detent escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with brass temperature screws and four brass mean time nuts, blued steel helical free-sprung balance spring with outer terminal curves, diamond endstone, escapement jeweled with endstones. Dial and movement signed. Diam. 59 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-30

Good

Alterations
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

This watch was sold by Antiquorum, The Private Collection of Theodor Beyer, November 16, 2003, Lot 37. Heinrich Johannes Kessels (1781-1849). He began his career as a blacksmith in Holland, his native country. Subsequently, he went to Paris and studied watchmaking with Breguet. Afterwards he went to England where he stayed with the Muston brothers, chronometer makers in Bristol. In 1821 he left for Copenhagen and secured the patronage of King Frederick VI, who induced him to settle in Altona, then Danish territory. Kessels had an excellent reputation, his contemporaries praising him highly. He was appointed chronometer maker to the Danish Navy, and became a member of the both the Royal Society of Sciences in Stockholm and the Mathematical Society in Hamburg. His chronometers show a strong English influence but are also very consistent with the Breguet style. Kessels also made observatory clocks with a Graham escapement that he modified, in which the anchor embraced only 6 teeth of the 30-tooth wheel. These were purchased by many observatories, including Kensington, Athens, Stockholm, Lund, Moscow, and Cracow.