Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Nov 16, 2008

LOT 482

Beaure Fecit, No. 1. Dated 1824. Very fine and extremely unusual, large, 18K gold pocket watch with duplex escapement, fusee and white-metal wheel train.

CHF 4,800 - 6,500

USD 4,500 - 6,000 / EUR 3,000 - 4,000

Sold: CHF 5,400

C. Four-body, ?bassine et filets?, engine-turned, the back cover with an engraved foliate monogram. Hinged gilt metal cuvette. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds, secret signature below 12. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. Cal. 23???, 52 mm., gilt, Lepine caliber, fusee and chain, maintaining power, white metal wheels, jeweled to the third wheel, duplex escapement, three-arm gilt balance, the upper pivot with pare-chute, faceted endstone, blued steel flat balance spring, blued steel index regulator with bimetallic temperature compensation curb. Dial with secret signature, cuvette signed. Diam. 58 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 4-11

Fair

Slightly worn
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-23-01

Good

Later

HANDS Original

Notes

The name of Beaure appears to be unrecorded but he was evidently a maker who was active in either France or Switzerland and judging by the present watch, he was an extremely able maker. The influence of Breguet is quite evident in the functional layout, sturdy design and high finish of each mechanical part and in the use of the pare-chute shock absorber, temperature compensation curb and secret signature ? all classic Breguet inventions. Continental watches using a combination of duplex escapement and fusee and chain are quite uncommon and this would suggest that Beaure had some knowledge of English watches also. The wheel train of this watch is made from a white metal alloy which is as yet unidentified.
Literature: La Montre Française, Adolphe Chapiro, Les Editions de l?Amateur, 1991, pp. 326, 328 & 329, figs. 671-674. ?Watch No. 1 by Beaure?, Adolphe Chapiro, Antiquarian Horology, June 1974.