Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Du Rhône, Nov 12, 2006

LOT 34

For Alfred Nobel ?Minute Repeater & Chronograph? Le Roy & Fils, Hgers. De La Marine, Palais Royal, 13&15 GALie Montpensier, Paris, 57, New Bond Street, London, No. 55786. Made circa 1880, formerly the property of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), the founder of the Nobel Prizes. Very fine and historically important, 18K gold, minute-repeating, keyless pocket watch with chronograph and short gold mesh fob.

C. Four-body, ?bassine?, polished, engine-turned back cover with monogram ?AN?. Hinged gold cuvette. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and concentric fifths of a second track with Arabic five minute/second numerals, subsidiary seconds. Yellow gold ?spade? hands. M. 43 mm., 19???, frosted gilt, 29 jewels, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide in the band, chronograph button in the crown. Cuvette signed. Diam. 51 mm. Property of a Scandinavian Collector