Tevob (sic), Nos. 9844, 9845, Swiss by Bovet Fleurier, circa 1825. Very rare and fine symetrical pair of gold and enamel watches for the Chinese market, with special movements. | Important Watches, Wristwatches and Clocks | Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, 25th April 1993

Important Watches, Wristwatches and C...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Apr 25, 1993

LOT 173

Tevob (sic), Nos. 9844, 9845, Swiss by Bovet Fleurier, circa 1825. Very rare and fine symetrical pair of gold and enamel watches for the Chinese market, with special movements.

CHF 90,000 - 110,000

Sold: CHF 109,250

C. Three body, each decorated with scarlet and white demi flower patterns and green foliage on a powder blue ground, the pendant and bow en suite with black enamelled bezels. Back panels finely enamelled with identical family scenes set in wooded landscape. Hinged glazed cuvettes. D. White enamel, Roman hour numerals, outer minute rings, subsidiary seconds at 6 o' clock. Blued-steel spade hands. M. Skeletonised Chinese market pattern with blued-steel plate, free standing barrel with blued-steel cover, cocks of polished steel, wheels of silver, cylinder escapement with plain polished 3-arm steel balance, flat spring with blued-steel regulator. Signed on the cuvette edges. In perfect condition. Diam. 59mm.

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Notes

Tevob is clearly the name Bovet spelt backwards. Several explanations have been advanced as to why they should have adopted this practice on a number of their watches made for the Chinese market. According to Chapuis in La Montre Chinoise it may well have been to bring the correct reading of the name Gloser to a Chinese translation, the language being read from right to left. Alternatively it may have been to take advantage of the strong relationship between London made and signed products destined for China; other examples are not simply signed Tevob but Tevob London (op. cit) and indeed the back of the case bears fake London marks which are in this case applied on gold, but were also used to mark heavily silver gilt watches. Certainly the signature Tevob appears to have been used in approximately 1830. Literature: A. Chapuis, La Montre Chinoise, Neuchatel. A full description of the lives and works of the Bovet family both in Switzerland and China is given in this book.