Important Collectors Wristwatches, Po...

Geneva, Nov 14, 2009

LOT 240

Pivoted Detent Chronometer Grande & Petite Sonnerie Quarter-Repeating Clockwatch Girard-Perregaux, La Chaux-de-Fonds, ?Chronomètre Répétition Petite et Grande Sonnerie?, No. 27168. Made circa 1870. Extremely fine and important, 18K rose gold, keyless, two train, grande and petite sonnerie, trip quarter-repeating clockwatch with pivoted detent chronometer escapement.

CHF 35,000 - 45,000

USD 35,000 - 45,000 / EUR 24,000 - 30,000

Sold: CHF 42,000

C. Four body, "bassine et filets", polished. Hinged gold cuvette engraved with the technical details and with engine turned border. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic fiveminute numerals, subsidiary seconds. Gold Louis XV hands. M. 19''', nickel plated, fausses cotes decoration, double train with differential tandem winding, 29 jewels, gold wheel train, pivoted detent chronometer escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, striking and repeating hours and quarters on two gongs activated by a trip slide on the band, Marche/Silence and Petite/Grande Sonnerie selection levers under the bezel. Cuvette and movement signed. Diam. 51 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3

Good
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Any complication, such as a striking train, affects the timekeeping of a watch, so that watches with striking, repeating or chronographs were not usually regarded as precision watches. The present watch is extremely rare because it has a detent chronometer escapement combined with grande and petite sonnerie striking and quarter-repeating.
The use of the chronometer escapement shows that Girard-Perregaux intended this watch to be a precision timekeeper and as such a great deal of skill would have been needed to make the movement and to incorporate all the functions, yet retain the timekeeping capabilities.
In Grande Sonnerie Striking, both the hours and the quarters are struck at each quarter. In Petite Sonnerie Striking, "ting-tang" quarters are struck at the quarters, but the hour is struck only at the hour.