Important Collectors’ Wristwatches Po...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Apr 22, 1995

LOT 409

J.C.E. Hard, Lond, certainly made by Eckhardt in Friedberg for the English market, circa 1700. Fine and extremely rare silver pair cased " chronoscope" watch with date, the fusee with reversing safety ratchet.

CHF 22,000 - 24,000

USD 18,000 - 20,000

C. Outer double body, polished. Iimer double body bassine, polished with split bezel and loose-ring pendant. D. Silver champleve with aperture for digital jump houx at twelve, serni-circular sector for fly-back minutes, the centre with applied elaborate pierced and chased silver gilt plaque against blue ground with apertures for quarter hours and date with independent setting square. Blued steel minute hand. M. Hinged gilt brass full plate with Egyptian pillars, fusee with chair and reversing safety ratchet, verge escapement, plain steel three-arm balance with flat balance spring. Gilt brass English style cock pierced and engraved with a mask and foliage. Signed on the back plate. In very good condition. Diam. 58 mm.


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Notes

This watch represents an interesting and notably rare example of the ingenuity expressed by the best Friedberg makers. A comprehensive study of watch naking in the town has been undertaken by Sebastian Whitestone for an article published in the Antiquarian Horological Journal of winter 1994. That this watch was made by Eckhardt must remain a supposition, but it seems credible on the basis of known cryptic signatures. The fusee of this watch incorporates a safety ratchet preventing any damage if an attempt is made to wind the watch in the wrong direction. An interesting parallel may be drawn with a watch signed Fromanteel, formely in the Belin collection and sold by Sotheby's as lot 22 in the auction of the saine on 29 November 1979, and now in the Dr. E Geschwind Fondation. That watch has a conventional chronoscope dial and the fusee may be woumd in both directions. It seems very likely that it was also made in Friedberg. The watch now offered for sale has a further refinement in the form of a fly-back minute hand which appeaux to be unique for the period.