Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong - Kong, Oct 09, 2010

LOT 185

Constant Piguet Westminster Chime Carillon Minute-Repeating Constant Piguet, Le Sentier, No. 3657, Swiss patent No. 11948. Made circa 1910. Very fine and very rare, large, 18K yellow gold, hunting-cased, keyless, minuterepeating pocket watch with carillon Westminster chime with four hammers on four gongs.

HKD 250,000 - 330,000

USD 32,000 - 43,000 / EUR 25,000 - 33,000

Sold: HKD 387,500

C. Four-body, "bassine", polished, the front cover with a white champlevé enamel monogram ?GB?. Hinged gold cuvette. D. White enamel, large Breguet numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 45 mm., 20???, gilt brass, 32 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with overcoil, index regulator, repeating on four gongs with four hammers activated by a slide on the band. Case numbered, movement punched with Constant Piguet?s partial patent number. Diam. 55 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Carillon minute repeating watches are very rare; only a few are known with four hammers or Westminster chimes. On March 20, 1896, Constant Piguet patented this system of minute-repeat with carillon, under the No. 11948 . The makers that specialized in this type of watch were Constant Piguet, Eduard JeanRichard, and Victorin Piguet. The known tunes played by four hammer carillons are: - Westminster chimes, - the Swiss National anthem, - God Save the King. A watch playing God Save the King was sold by Antiquorum, Geneva, on November 11, 2006, lot 53. Similar watches were sold by Antiquorum: Hong Kong, June 8, 2008, lot 86; and: Geneva, October 4, 2009, lot 353; Geneva, November 14, 2009, lot 241. A similar watch with Westminster chimes was sold by Antiquorum, Geneva, March 16, 2008, lot 569, for 92,400 Swiss Francs.
Constant Piguet IIn 1896 Constant Piguet is listed as a gong maker in Le Sentier in the canton of Vaud, making carillon repeating watches with four hammers. On March 20, 1896, Constant Piguet patented this system of minute-repeat with carillon, under the Swiss patent No. 11948. Today these are the watches for which he is best known; they bear his patent number on the movement. Literature: Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie, 1896-97, p. 325.
Westminster Chimes The Westminster chimes are more correctly called the Cambridge Chimes. They first appeared in 1793 at St. Mary?s Church, Cambridge. They were written by Rev Dr. Joseph Jowett and Dr. John Randall, working with undergraduate William Crotch (later first Principal of the Royal Academy of Music) and were adopted by Lord Grimthorpe, designer of the great ?Big Ben? clock ? for the Palace of Westminster. The chimes are based on four notes from Handel?s Messiah and are known locally in Cambridge as ?Jowett?s Jig?.