Important Collectors Watches, Pocket ...

Hong Kong, Jun 08, 2008

LOT 404

Watch with 14 Complications Attributed to Louis Audemars, No. 30487. Made for the English market, circa 1910. Extremely fine and equally rare, heavy, 18K yellow gold, two-train, hunting-cased, keyless Grande et Petite Sonnerie clockwatch with trip minute-repeating, split-seconds chronograph, instantaneous 30-minute register, perpetual calendar and phases of the moon.

HKD 1,300,000 - 1,500,000

USD 170,000 - 200,000 / EUR 100,000 - 120,000

C. Four-body, "bassine", massive, polished, push button for the chronograph at 12, the split-seconds in the crown. Hinged gold cuvette. D. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, outermost chronograph divisions with fifths of a second divisions and Arabic five second/minute numerals, four subsidiary dials for days of the week, date, months concentric with leap year indication and instantaneous 30-minute register, seconds and aperture for the phases of the moon. Blued steel pear hands. M. 40 mm 18''', threequarter plate, rhodium-plated, fausses cotes decoration, two-train, differential tandem winding, fully jeweled, most in screwed gold chatons, lateral lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with gold temperature adjustment screws, blued steel Breguet balance spring with overcoil, index regulator, striking and repeating on gongs, small slide in the band, hours/quarters and strike/silent levers protruding from the bezel. Case numbered, scratched ?Brafsus? and numbered 30487 on the back of the moon phase disc. Diam. 59 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Very few manufacturers made such highly complicated watches as the present watch and those who did make them were the very best Swiss watch companies including Patek Philippe, Vacheron & Constantin and Louis Audemars. Sometimes, watches destined for export were not signed, however, the present watch can be attributed to Louis Audemars because the place name ?Brassus? was used by the firm of Louis Audemars as a tradename and this is scratched along with ?Suifse? and the watch number on the back of the moonphase disc. A moonphase disc scratch signed in this way is illustrated in: ?Louis-Benjamin Audemars, His Life and Work?, Hartmut Zantke, 2003, p. 415.
Louis Audemars (1782-1833) Born in La Vallée de Joux, at 16 Louis Audemars was apprenticed to Philippe Meylan and soon established his reputation for the fine workmanship of his movements. All eight of Audemar's sons continued in the family firm, making finished movements, and around 1837 inventing the keyless winding / setting system known today as the Audemars system. In 1848 Audemars began producing complete watches. The company became recognized as one of the best, furnishing the major Swiss and French manufacturers such as Le Roy, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin, with highly complicated watches and movements.