A TRIBUTE TO PRECISION AND COMPLICATE...

Hotel Nogalhilton Geneve, Nov 11, 2001

LOT 61

Precision Timekeeper with 1 ComplicationHonoré Pons, invented and executed in an XII (Sept. 24, 1803 - Sept. 23, 1804)Extremely rare and very fine dead center-seconds mantle regulator with one-second constant force detent escapement.

CHF 100,000 - 130,000

USD 62,000 - 81,000

Sold: CHF 108,000

C. Dark green rectangular marble base with gilt brass circular feet, wooden frame with four square columns supported by rectangular wooden block, classical wooden top with molded edges. D. Small enamel, set at the top with Roman hour chapter and outer minute ring. Center-seconds with white enamel ring with dot divisions and five-seconds Arabic markers, escapement visible in the center. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. Humpback, 16,5cm high, 14 cm wide, going barrel with five-wheel train, brass-steegridiron pendulum with knife-edge suspension and beat adjustment on the crutch, ingenious remontoir with escape wheel driven by an extremely small hollow weight, weighing less than one gram, whose cord is wound directly on the escape wheel arbor, constantly giving the same one-directional impulse. Winding is achieved as follows: unlocking jewel mounted on the T-shaped impulse frame, set on the same arbor as the crutch releases the detent, the escape wheel giving an impulse to the steel pin. Aftr the impulse is delivered a pin mounted on the escape wheel lifts a lever, unlocking the train, and consequently another pin on the last train wheel lifts the lever set on the escape wheel, locking it on the detent and winding the small weight. Most of the escapement detents and levers have adjustments; when adjusted properly it becomes a remarkably accurate detached escapement.Signed on the movement.Dim. Height 50 cm, base width 31cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3 - 21*
Dial: 3 - 01

Notes

The escapement is a very clever application of the constant force mechanism to the escapement invented by Berthoud (see lot No. 44); it seems to be an unrecorded version. The finesse of conception and the precision of the clock's execution clearly justify de Thury's placing Pons among the best of the period.Honoré PonsActive in Saint Nicolas d'Aliermont from 1807, he was one of the most eminent French clockmakers of the period. In 1819 Viscount Hericart de Thury wrote: "The Art of Clockmaking" provides us with a throng of distinguished names known in the sciences of astronomy and physics, such as the Breguets, the Berthouds, the Janviers, the Robins, the Lepautes, the Bourdiers, the Pons?"A tremendously versatile clockmaker and watchmaker, he designed and built his own machinery for clock production, devised his own type of movements which he sold to other watchmakers, such as Brocot, and which today are referred to as Pons calibers. He took part in numerous exhibitions, and won many prizes and medals. Upon his death he bequeathed 1000 francs to be employed to help watchmakers in need."Les Ouvriers du Temps", Jean-Dominique Augarde, Editions Antiquorum, Geneva, 1996."Dictionnaire des Horlogers Français", Tardy, Paris, 1972.