Important Collectors’ Watches, Pocket...

Geneva, Oct 14, 2007

LOT 385

Lecocq, Elève du Gouvernement, Berthoud Professeur, No. 279. Made circa 1845. Extremely rare and important, 30-hour, marine chronometer, made in the Louis Berthoud style by one of the pupils of his son, Charles Auguste Berthoud.

CHF 15,000 - 20,000

EUR 9,000 - 12,000 / USD 12,000 - 17,000

C. Two-tier, mahogany box with slide on the lid over the glazed observation port, brass gimbal with a lidded bowl, sliding locking bolt. D. Silvered regulator type, with small radial Roman chapter ring for hours, subsidiary seconds below, outer minute divisions and Arabic five-minute numerals. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 75 mm., brass full plate, with conical pillars secured by pins, fusee with chain, Harrison?s maintaining power, footed spring detent escapement with screw to secure the detent, three-arm bimetallic compensation balance, with three trapezoidal weights and timing adjustment screws, blued steel helical balance spring, jawed stud. Dial signed and numbered. Dial diam. 80 mm. Box 16 x 16.5 x 16.5 cm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3-6**

Good

Slightly oxidized

Repair required, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-6-01

Good

Slightly oxidized

HANDS Original

Notes

Perrelet was in charge of the Ecole des Horlogers de la Marine from 1832, when he decided to resign in December 1839. Charles Auguste Berthoud was then appointed as his successor by the Ministre de la Marine, to complete the instruction of his pupils. Onesime Dumas had been there since 1837, but among the three other pupils, Louis Lecocq had just arrived in October 1839, therefore, he was almost entirely taught by Charles Auguste Berthoud. The calibre used for this chronometer, being of Louis Berthoud type, and the inscription on the dial: Eleve du Gouvernement, Berthoud Professeur, suggests it was made under the control of Charles Auguste Berthoud, probably as a masterpiece to mark the end of Lecocq?s studies. Therefore, it can he assumed that the. No. 279 is a Berthoud serial number, in the same way that the chronometer made by Henri Motel as a masterpiece, under the control of Louis Berthoud, carries the No. 140, which belongs to the Louis Berthoud production. A very similar chronometer by Auguste Louis Berthoud is described and illustrated by J.C. Sabrier in ?La longitude en Mer à l'heure de Louis Berthoud et Henri Motel?, p. 315.