Important collector's watches, wristw...

Hotel Richemond, Geneva, Apr 13, 2002

LOT 35

The Minotaurs Unsigned, German, circa 1570. Interesting gilt bronze tambour-shaped, single-hand pendant alarm watch with iron movement, stackfreed, foliot and hog?s bristle regulator.

C. Two-body, drum-shaped, ?fermée? type, hinged top and fixed bottom, the front entirely chiseled and pierced for viewing the hours with 12 openings separated by Minotaur masks, the center with smaller pierced and engraved Minotaur masks, pierced band with hunting scenes, the back with masks and figures in the ?grotesque? manner typical of the German Renaissance. D. Gilt metal, hinged to the case, twelve tactile knob markers for night reading, outer radial Roman 1 to 12-hour chapter ring, engraved inner quarter-hour divisions and innermost chapter with Arabic 13 to 24-hour numerals in the German style, pin-hole formerly for setting the striking, the center, engraved with a rosette, revolving for the alarm. Gilt brass ?tulip? hand. M. 50 mm ø, iron, full plate, four rectangular pillars, C-shaped stackfreed and going barrel, verge escapement, foliot and hog?s bristle mounted on a pivoted, adjustable lever, small iron S-shaped pinned cock, two-wheel alarm train striking on a bell fixed to the inside of the case. Diam. 65 mm.