Important Collector's Watches, Pocket...

Geneva, Nov 11, 2007

LOT 174

Farewell to the Beloved Attributed to Piguet & Meylan, Genève, No. 695, the case by Frères Oltramare. Made for the Chinese market, circa 1820. Very fine and rare, musical, quarter-repeating, 18K gold, polychrome enamel, turquoise and pearl-set pocket watch, playing music on the hour or at will.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

EUR 35,000 - 50,000 / USD 50,000 - 65,000

Sold: CHF 73,160

C. Four-body, ?Empire?, No. 2421, the bezels, pendant and bow decorated with alternating split pearls and turquoises, the band decorated to match, the back cover set with a finely painted polychrome enamel panel depicting a gentleman taking leave of his two daughters. Hinged gold cuvette decorated with opaque pale blue champleve enamel and gold foliage, apertures for the going and musical trains. D. Gold with radial polished Roman numerals, outer dot minute divisions, engine-turned center. Blued steel serpentine hands. M. 50 mm., gilt, standing barrels for the going and musical trains, cylinder escapement, three-arm balance with polished steel endplate, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs activated by depressing the pendant, sur plateau musical movement with 23 tuned blued steel teeth playing on both sides of the pinned disc, silence lever protruding from the edge of the cuvette, bolt to activate the music on the band. Case stamped with the casemaker?s mark ?F.O?, movement numbered 695. Diam. 58 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-61

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

The enamel scene decorating the present watch is by a recognisable but as yet unidentified hand. Most of the enamels by this artist are fitted to cases by Freres Oltramare often with movements by Piguet Meylan. Other watches with enamels by this artist and depicting similar subjects have been sold by Antiquorum: Geneva, November 16, 2002, lot 151 ; Hong Kong, April 23, 2006, lot 421 ; Geneva, November 12, 2006, lot 52.

Frères Oltramare
Recorded as working in Geneva between 1810/11 and 1826.