Important Collectors’ Wristwatches Po...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Oct 21, 1995

LOT 205

Hunt & Roskell, London, made by Sylvain Mairet (S.M.) No.274, with London hallmarks for 1846. Exceptional 18 ct. gold, extra-slim, independent dead centre seconds watch with regulator dial, thermometer, special escapement and hand setting device.

CHF 22,000 - 25,000

C. Double body, the engine-turned back with bayonet fixing, marked "E.P." (Elisee Piguet). D. White enamel with Roman numerals, outer seconds ring, sunk subsidiary minute and thermometer sector (hair lises). Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 18"', frosted and gilt, double train with going barrels and female winding squares, 24 jewels, Mairet's straight lise lever escapement with the lift on the escape wheel teeth, cut bimetallic balance, balance spring with terminal curve. Independent seconds boit in the band. Special hand setting device by means of the crown when pulled. Signed on the dial, the front plate marked S.M. with the No. 274. In very good condition. Diam. 44 min.


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Notes

Note: This extremely elegant watch, typical of Sylvain Mairet's production, in corporates most of his innovations, the escapement, the hand setting device, the design of the dial and the slimness. It is one of the finest examples of watches produced by Sylvain Mairet for Hunt and Roskell during his five year stay in London. It can only be compared with that illustrated and described in T.P. Camerer Cuss (revised by T.A. Camerer Cuss), The Cainerer Book of Antique Watches, London 1976, pp. 224-225 and the fine pocket chronometer from the British Museum, illustrated by G. Daniels and C. Clutton in Watches, London 1971, fig. 284 a-b. In London, Sylvain Mairet, produced high quality watches for Hunt and Roskell and became friends with James Ferguson Cole who was much