Important Collectors' Watches, Pocket...

Geneva, Mar 16, 2008

LOT 568

Four Hammer Carillon Constant Piguet, Sentier, No. 3378, Swiss patent No. 11948. Made circa 1915. Very fine and extremely rare, slim, carillon minute repeating 18K yellow gold hunting-cased pocket watch.

CHF 45,000 - 55,000

USD 40,000 - 50,000 / EUR 28,000 - 34,000

Sold: CHF 60,000

C. Four-body, ?bassine?, polished. Hinged gold cuvette. D. White enamel with Breguet numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds. Blackened Breguet hands. M. 43 mm (19???), frosted gilt, bar calibre, 28 jewels, counterpoised straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating the hours, quarter hours and minutes with four hammers on four gongs activated by a slide in the band. Diam. 54 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Carillon minute repeating watches are very rare; only a few are known with four hammers or Westminster chimes. On March 20, 1896, Constant Piguet patented a system of minute-repeat with carillon under the No. 11948 .Makers specializing in this type of watch were Constant Piguet, Eduard JeanRichard, and Victorin Piguet. The known tunes played by four-hammer carillons are: Westminster chimes, the Swiss National anthem, and God Save the King. A watch playing God Save the King was sold by Antiquorum, Geneva, on November 11, 2006, lot 53. Similar watches were sold by Antiquorum, Exceptional Horological Works of Art, Geneva, October 19, 2002, lot 8; and Important Collectors? Wristwatches, Pocket Watches and Clocks, Hong Kong, July 10, 2005, lot 83; Important Collectors? Wristwatches, Pocket Watches and Clocks, Geneva, May 14, 2006, lot 783 and October 15, 2006, lot Paul Ditisheim (detail of the movement with four hammers and four gongs). Constant Piguet Was a gong maker in Le Sentier in the canton of Vaud, making carillon repeating watches with four hammers. Today he is best known for these watches, which bear his patent number on the movement. Literature: Journal Suisse D'Horlogerie, 1896-97, p. 325.