Important Collectors Wristwatches, P...
Geneva, Oct 04, 2009
LOT 114
Special Escapement, Quarter Repeater Père Bouhelier, No. 751. Made circa 1830. Fine and rare, 18K gold, quarter-repeating pocket watch with special escapement.
CHF 3,000 - 4,000
USD 2,800 - 3,800 / EUR 2,000 - 2,600
Sold: CHF 3,600
C. Four-body, ?bassine et filets?, engine-turned and polished, engine-turned band. Hinged gilt metal cuvette. D. White enamel with radial Arabic numerals, outer minute divisions. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 48 mm., frosted gilt, 6 jewels, standing barrel, special polished steel lateral lever escapement with elongated lever arm, the fork engaging a locking pin on the balance pivot, plain three-arm balance, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, repeating with two massive polished steel hammers on two gongs activated by a pullandtwist button in the pendant, polished steel repeating work under the dial. Cuvette signed. Diam. 53 mm.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: AA |
Very good |
Case: 3 |
Good |
Movement: 3** |
Good Repair required, at buyer's expense |
Dial: 3-25-07 |
Good Chipped HANDS Replaced |
Notes
A native of Saint Julien, a small village near Charquemont, in Franche Comte, where his surname was very common. Although mostly farmers, the population made cylinder escapements in winter-time, for both the French and the Swiss makers. It is interesting to note that the few watches known from this maker are all constructed with this very unusual calibre and all set with the same type of straightline lever escapement. Very few watches made by Père Bouhelier are known to exist. Two were discussed in Horlogerie Ancienne, bulletin of the A.N.C.1--I. A. Two others were sold by Antiquorum, Geneva: October 12, 1996, lot 239; May 14, 2006, lot 611. These watches were made with a very special primitive calibre, each of special design. It was difficult to decide whether he was ahead of his time, technologically speaking, or behind. As Père Bouhelier was a priest who emigrated to England during the French Revolution, it is most likely that he learned how to make the lever escapements during his enforced exile based on his own trial and error.