Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong Kong, May 10, 2020

LOT 232

Jeanneret & Kocher and LeCoultre & Co. - Large pocket chronometer, minute-repeater, chronograph, perpetual calendar, leap-year, moon phases; 18K yellow gold

HKD 156,000 - 188,000

USD 20,000 - 24,000 / EUR 18,200 - 21,900 / CHF 20,000 - 24,000

Sold: HKD 193,750

18K yellow gold, hunting-case, keyless-winding, round-shaped, large pocket chronometer, with subsidiary seconds at 6 and eight horological complications: • Minute-repeater on two steel gongs (activated by the slide at 6 o’clock) • 1/5 second chronograph (activated by the single olive push-piece located on the case-band at 12 o’clock) • Half-instantaneous perpetual calendar • Date of the month (subsidiary dial at 3 o’clock) • Day of the week (subsidiary dial at 9 o’clock; indications given in English) • Month of the year (subsidiary dial at 12 o’clock; indications given in English) • Four-year cycle of leap-years (subsidiary dial at 12 o’clock) • Phases of the moon (aperture at 6 o’clock). Cover and case-back polished.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3 *
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Model with Bulletin de marche from the Astronomical Observatory of Neuchâtel

Year circa 1892-1896

Movement No. 1 083

Case No. 1 083

Material 18K yellow gold

Diameter 58.5 mm.

Caliber 20’’’ (ebauche by LeCoultre & Co., Le Sentier, Vallée de Joux, 19 / 20 RMCSQ, from 1892), lever escapement

Signature cuvette (dome; by the maker) and movement (by the manufacture)

Accessories Extract from the Archives

Notes

The Extract from the Archives, dated September 23, 2019, mentioned that this watch was manufactured in 1892.

Biography

Jeanneret & Kocher, La Chaux-de-Fonds
House founded by Gérold Jeanneret and E. Kocher in La Chaux-de-Fonds (49, rue Demoiselle). They seem to have been associated between 1893 and 1896.
They produce pocket watches with all kinds of horological complications (Grande Sonnerie, minute repeater, perpetual calendar, chronograph with recorder and split-seconds) and pocket chronometers with bulletins de marche from the Neuchâtel Observatory.
They presented their products at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, where they received a Medal (“Unique Medal”).
At the Swiss National Exhibition in Geneva in 1896, they were awarded a Silver Medal (Group I, Watchmaking, Section 1, Chronometers and Completed Watches, Cat. No. 59) and a Gold Medal awarded for the Collectivité des Fabricants d’horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds (idem, Cat. No. 28).
Gérold Jeanneret is present at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 (cat. with the design of a watch with horological complications, a “triple complication”).
However, the house was not present at the Swiss National Exhibition in Berne in 1914.
In the 1890’s, they regularly used ebauches from the manufacture LeCoultre & Cie, Le Sentier (Vallée de Joux), for their repeater and chronograph watches, but also from Louis-Elisée Piguet, Le Brassus (Vallée de Joux), for their watches with Grande Sonnerie.
They obtain many bulletins de marche from the Astronomical Observatory of Neuchâtel; some of their parts are adjusted by Paul Borgstedt (?-?) from Le Locle, Zacharie Pantillon (1844-1929) from La Chaux-de-Fonds, others by F.-E- Thiébaud (?-?) from Geneva.
It should be noted that they obtain bulletins de marche for watches with horological complications; an extremely rare occurrence, for example in 1893:
  • No. 1 083, minute-repeater, chronograph and perpetual calendar (ranked 43rd in category C).
  • No. 1 091, minute repeater, Grande Sonnerie, chronograph and perpetual calendar (ranked 44th in category D).