Important Collectors Wristwatches, Po...

Geneva, Nov 14, 2009

LOT 120

Madonna della Sedia, Very Early Keyless Winding Attributed to Czapek & Cie, à Genève, No. 16998/ 2112. Made circa 1850. Very fine and extremely rare, 18K yellow gold and painted on enamel pocket watch with Adrien Philippe?s first patented stem-wind and hand-setting system, patent No. 1317 of 22 April, 1845 without coasting.

CHF 15,000 - 20,000

USD 15,000 - 20,000 / EUR 10,000 - 13,000

C. Four-body, bassine et filets, the bezel, stem and band decorated with pale blue champleve enamel and gold leaves, flat-top winding crown, the back cover decorated with a polychrome painted on enamel of the ?Madonna della Sedia? after the original by Raphael, within a white and pale blue champleve enamel border with gold leaves, the interior with a very fine painted on enamel portrait miniature of a young girl within a pale blue enamel and matted foliate border. Hinged gold cuvette decorated with a very fine polychrome painted on enamel view of Lac Leman (Geneva) across to the Alps beyond, border to match the interior of the back cover. D. White enamel secured by two screws, with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, subsidiary seconds. Gold Breguet hands. M. 15???, frosted gilt, bar calibre, 8 jewels, wolf?s tooth winding, cylinder escapement, gilt three-arm flat-rim balance, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator, Adrien Philippe?s first patented stem-wind and hand setting system. Movement numbered on the dial plate. Diam. 37 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3-31

Good

Transformations
Movement: 3

Good
Dial: 4-24-25-01

Fair

Slightly chipped

Chipped

HANDS Original

Notes

present watch can confidently be attributed to Czapek & Cie because, apart from Patek Philippe themselves, nobody else was permitted to use Adrien Philippe?s patent winding and hand-setting system in their watches. Also, Czapek, when using this system made a small change to the design of the check spring which is unique to Czapek and is present in this watch. Nothing is known of the arrangement whereby Czapek was permitted to use the patent winding system and no record of any license payments exist but it seems he was nonetheless entitled to use it. In his book Czapek states that in his shop he used only this design.
The French patent No. 1317 of April 22, 1845 was for Adrien Philippe?s winding and hand-setting system. The winding pinion is fixed to the winding shaft, for winding the crown must be turned clockwise and cannot be turned back with that typical ratchet noise. To disengage the winding in order to set the hands, the winding crown can be pulled out. Very few watches survive with this early winding mechanism without coasting and the present watch is particularly rare in also having such an exquisitely decorated case.
Czapek & Cie. Franciszek Czapek was a Polish émigré who arrived in Switzerland in 1832 after the fall of the Polish insurrection against Russia. On May 1, 1839, Antoni Patek and François Czapek (his name having been gallicized) established a business in Geneva under the name of Patek et Czapek. The partnership lasted six years, during which some exceptional watches were produced. After the dissolution, Patek established Patek, Philippe Co. with a new partner, Adrien Philippe, and Czapek founded "Czapek et Cie", also with a new partner, Juliusz Gruzewski. Czapek?s new company did well. Gruzewski was a personal friend of Napoleon III, and Czapek quickly became watchmaker to the court of the Emperor (Unger's calendar for 1850, Warsaw, 1850). He had a factory in Geneva, a shop in Warsaw, and another in Paris. He wrote a small book about watches and watchmaking in which he announced that he was working on a larger volume, but he unfortunately died before publishing it.