Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, May 13, 2012

LOT 361

REVOLUTIONARY TIME Dufour Fol & Compagnie, (Paris). Made circa 1795. Fine and very rare, silver, Revolutionary watch with decimal and duodecimal time.

CHF 6,000 - 8,000

USD 6,500 - 8,700 / EUR 5,000 - 6,500

C. Two-body, "Directoire", polished, 12-sided bezel, engraved inner bezel. D. White enamel, with concentric indication of decimal time in black radial Roman numerals and Arabic 100 minute divisions, duodecimal time in Arabic numerals I-12 in each half of the dial, with outermost 60-minute divisions. Three gilt Breguet hands. M. 40 mm, hinged, matte gilt full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee and chain, verge escapement with micrometric potence adjustment, brass three-arm balance with fl at balance spring, continental cock, silver regulation dial. Dial and movement signed. Diam. 47 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-75-01

Good

ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Slightly restored soft enamel

HANDS Original

Notes

This watch is evocative of a brief and turbulent period in French history when the new Republic decreed the use of decimal time. After the Revolution, a new digital system was adopted. The day was divided into ten hours of 100 minutes each, each minute being subdivided into 100 seconds. Thus, for example, 12:30 PM was 5:20:83.3 in decimal time. The decimalization of time was introduced on November 24, 1793. The new division of time proved impossible to enforce, and was suspended on April 7, 1795. Thus, there was a period of less than 18 months during which these timepieces were produced, which explains why they are so rare. See: ?Revolutionary Time?, Vox Magazine, 2004. A clock signed Dufour Fol & Compagnie with Revolutionary time is in the Musee Carnavalet in Paris.