The Art of American Horology Part ll,...

Roosevelt Hotel, Madison Avenue @ 45th Street, Dec 04, 2002

LOT 288

Thomas Engel, No. VIII, carriage by Richard Daners, circa 1980.Exceptionally fine and very rare, 18K gold and enamel, keyless one-minute tourbillon regulator with thermometer, power reserve.

USD 20,000 - 30,000

C. four-body, "forme collier", screw engine turned back with translucent green enamel with very elegantly arranged gold paillon leaves, engine turned band, gold glazed cuvette, ball-shaped, swiveling pendant which is also a winding device. D. silver, champlevé Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, engine turned center, 48-hour up-and-down sector at 3 o'clock, subsidiary seconds at 6 o'clock, thermometer sector at 10 o'clock.M. 50 mm, half-plate, three-arm carriage with lateral lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with special nonmagnetic Nivarox prima balance spring with Phillips terminal curves with two pins for adjustment between horizontal and vertical positions, entire train jeweled, escapement with endstones.Signed on dial and movement, case and movement punched with maker's mark.Diam. 56.7 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2

Very good
Dial: 1 - 01

Notes

Superbly designed and equally executed watch, making a tribute to the horological talents and capabilities of late 20th century horologists.Professor Thomas EngelIs known worldwide for his exceptional research in the production of polymers. In 1966, he developed a process for cross-linking plastic extrusions, particularly those of cross-linked polyethylene. Based on the reaction of plastics at pressures of 15'000 to 150'000 psi and temperatures of approximately 300° and in the presence of a peroxide catalyst, a cross-linking agent, this process was a significant step forward in plastics technology. It resulted in the production of a high molecular weightproduct having improved heat and chemical resistance, which is still in extensive use nearly thirty years later. Engel has received numerous prizes and honors for his work. In 1972, he was awarded the "Diesel Prize" along with Dr. Wernherr von Braun, the rocket and space technologist