Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Du Rhone, Apr 02, 2006

LOT 437

?One-Minute Tourbillon? Ernest Guinand, Locle, No. 3321. The case with Chester hallmarks for 1858-59. Very fine and important, early, thin, 18K gold hunting-cased pocket watch with one-minute tourbillon regulator of unusual layout and straight-line lever escapement in a leather-covered fitted box, accompanied by crank lever key.

CHF 40,000 - 60,000

108 26,000 - 38,000

Sold: CHF 56,640

C. Five-body, case-maker?s mark ?WR?, "bassine et filets", engine-turned, foliate and florally engraved, chased band, pendant and bow. Hinged gold-rimmed glazed cuvette. D. Silver, engine-turned and foliate engraved, with applied ?Gothic? radial Roman numerals, varicolored gold foliate decoration and and subsidiary seconds. Gold ?Louis XV? hands. M. 42 mm (19'''), frosted gilt, caliber with the top bridge forming the initial ?G? for Guinand, 15 jewels, polished steel early Guinand carriage with straight line lever escapement, cut-bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator. The bridge in the shape of a letter ?G? for Guinand, numbered on the pillar plate. Diam. 53 mm. To be sold without reserve


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-6-01

Good

Slightly oxidized

HANDS Original

Notes

The present watch appears to be one of only two of this caliber. The other one was sold by Antiquorum at the ?Longitude at the Eve of the Third Millennium? sale, October 23, 1999, lot 55. The present watch was sold by Antiquorum, Geneve, Novemebr 14, 2004, Lot 451. Ernest Guinand (c.1810 - 1879) The most eminent of Swiss tourbillon makers of the period, he rarely signed his watches. They were sold to établisseurs who signed them and in turn sold them to their clients. The ?signature? takes the form of the shape of the bridge, which forms the letter G. The present watch is also rare because it features a straight line lever escapement. Guinand generally used a lateral lever escapement, if he used a lever escapement at all. Guinand, from Le Locle, who, along with Auguste Grether from Ponts-de-Martel 1817-1879, specialized in the production of tourbillon carriages. Guinand must have begun tourbillon making in the 1850s or early 1860s, meaning that the present watch is very early in his output. In 1864 Patek Philippe chose him to build their first tourbillon regulator. Ernest Guinand designed at least three models of tourbillon carriage, based on an A-shaped frame. He worked for several important makers, including Girard-Perregaux, Patek Philippe, Montandon, and many others. He used the pivoted detent escapement, very rarely the spring detent, sometimes the lateral lever escapement, and apparently extremely few straight line lever escapements, as in the present watch.