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Hotel Nogalhilton Geneve, Nov 11, 2001

LOT 259

Thomas Earnshaw, Invenit et Fecit, No. 247, circa 1795.Fine and rare, mahogany, two-day marine chronometer in French style box.

CHF 14,000 - 18,000

USD 8,700 - 11,000

Sold: CHF 25,300

C. Brass bowl with threaded glazed bezel, gimbaled in two-body mahogany box with glazed round window in the top under sliding lid, brass handles, corner plate for a key, key-lock in front.D. Silvered, radial Roman numerals, outer minute ring, set eccentrically at the top, subsidiary seconds at the bottom. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 60 mm, brass full plate, turned pillars, secured by pins, fusee and chain, Earnshaw spring-detent escapement, typical Earnshaw bimetallic compensation balance with two wedge weighs and two timing screws, blued-steel free sprung 10-turns helical balance spring with outer terminal curves, escapement jeweled, balance with diamond endstione.Signed on the dial and box front ivory plaque.Bowl 8 cm in diameter, box 15 x 15 cm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3 - 29
Movement: 4 - 5 - 6*
Dial: 3 - 22 - 01

Notes

A rare piece by one of the creators of the modern chronometer. An Earnshaw chronometer, No. 245, virtually identical from the mechanical point of view, is in the British Museum Collection and is described and illustrated in the "Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum, part VI" by Anthony G. Randall and Richard Good, London, 1990.