Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Nov 16, 2008

LOT 2

Oignon with Central Fusee Gilles Martinot a Paris. Made circa 1690. Very fine and very rare, Louis XIV, gilt brass and leather, singlehand oignon watch, wound through the center, one of only three known watches with central fusee and stepped barrel.

CHF 7,000 - 9,000

USD 6,500 - 8,500 / EUR 4,400 - 5,700

Sold: CHF 8,400

C. Two-body, ?oignon?, the back and bezel overlaid with leather, loose ring pendant. D. Engraved gilt with radial blue Roman numerals on white enamel cartouches, inner white enamel quarterhour ring, the center decorated with strapwork and foliage. Steel tulip hand. M. 49 mm, frosted gilt full plate, divided Egyptian pillars, fusee and chain, the short fusee with three spirals mounted centrally and directly wound from the center, the barrel with undertier for the fusee chain coils, verge escapement, three-arm steel balance with short spring, chased cock decorated with symmetrical inhabited foliage and strapwork, Tompion-type regulator with silver scale disc. Movement signed. Diam. 61 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-19

Good

Dent(s)
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-29-32-01

Good

Lacking elements

Slightly restored

HANDS Original

Notes

The present watch is one of only three known examples of an oignon watch with the feature of a central fusee. The winding arbor, also carrying the hand, leads directly through to the fusee. To fit this arrangement beneath the escapement and within the confines of a normal sized movement, the fusee is very short with only three spirals, the barrel is normal sized but again due to space limits it has a lower inset tier beneath, which takes up the coils of the chain. The main advantage of this arrangement was that it gave the watch up to 30 hours of power reserve. However, with the introduction of the minute hand around 1700 it was impossible to place the fusee in the center and the arrangement became obsolete. One might wonder whether Breguet was aware of this system when he designed the ?Souscription? watch, with a single hand wound through the center with a centrally mounted barrel. Another example signed Yves Hubert à Richelieu was formerly in the Time Museum, Rockford, Illinois (inv. A-342); it is now in the Patek Philippe Museum, Geneva.
Literature: ?Oignons Louis XIV ayant une fusee au centre? (seconde partie), Adolphe Chapiro, Bulletin Ancaha, No. 79, Summer 1997. La montre française, Adolphe Chapiro, 1991, p. 92.