Exceptional horologic works of art

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Oct 11, 2003

LOT 9

Mercier, Stuttgart, circa 1810. Very fine and rare 18K gold, pearl-set ring watch.

CHF 4,000 - 6,000

EUR 2,600 - 3,900

Sold: CHF 7,475

C. Two-piece, oval, polished with tapered shank florally chased at the top. D. White enamel, Arabic numerals, outer minute dot divisions with fifteen-minute Arabic markers, winding aperture at 2 o'clock. Gold "beetle and poker" hands. M. 18 mm. (8'''), gilt brass, full plate, fixed barrel, cylinder escapement, three-arm brass balance with flat balance spring, Joseph Bosley type regulator pivoted over continental cock with scale running over the entire diameter of the movement.Signed on the movement.Dim: Height 31 mm, diam. 25 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 12 - 05

Notes

As early as the 1580s, watchmakers were fascinated with the idea of fitting a watch into a ring. Only a few succeeded. In the early days, successful attempts ended up on a King's or Prince's finger, or that of a prelate. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art there is a very early ring watch, dating from about 1560 and signed I.W. The Mantua archives contain a letter from James Widman to the Duke of Mantua concerning three ring watches, and it is quite possible that one of them is the one in the Metropolitan Museum. In about 1650, Johann Ulrich Schmidt of Augsburg made a ring watch for the Elector Johann Friedrich. In 1764, the young John Arnold presented an extraordinary ring watch to King George III of England. It was a half quarter-repeater, less than two centimeters in diameter and had 120 parts. The watch brought fame to Arnold and established him as a very capable watchmaker. Czar Paul I of Russia offered Arnold double what George III had paid - already a small fortune of £500 - but Arnold refused.The trend was set and others followed. For instance, in the Lord Sandberg collection (see Antiquorum, 31 March, 2001, No. 106) there was a very small erotic watch attributable to James Cox, with a movement of only 15.5 mm.