Exceptional Horological Sale Celebrat...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Geneva, Apr 24, 2004

LOT 74

Jaeger, Genève et Paris, movement signed European Watch & Clock Co., made for Henri Rodanet in 1931. Very elegant and highly important, made only in two examples, 18K gold and enamel, keyless astronomical triple-complication dress watch with perpetual calendar, phases of the moon, minute-repeating, split-seconds chronograph with 30-minute register in special case, with skeletonized dial.

CHF 150,000 - 200,000

EUR 95,000 - 126,000 / USD 117,000 - 156,000

Sold: CHF 333,500

C. Three-piece, "bassine et filets", glazed on both sides, bezel in champlevé black enamel, front bezel with gold radial Roman hour chapters separated by flowers, the back bezel, pendant, bow and band in champlevé black enamel, signed "JAEGER" in gold letters.D. Silver, skeletonized, minute and seconds ring divided into fifths, four subsidiary sunk dials for days of the week, date, months of the four-year leap cycle concentric with minute register, and subsidiary seconds concentric with moon phase aperture. Blued steel Breguet hands.M. 40 mm (18???), maillechort, "fausses côtes" decoration, 37 jewels, straight line lever escapement, cut-bimetallic compensation balance adjusted to 8 positions, Breguet balance spring, "swan-neck" micrometric regulator, chronograph and split-seconds mechanism set on the back plate, repeating on gongs through activating slide in the band.Band signed JAEGER, movement by EWC. Diam. 50 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 1

As new
Movement: 1

As new
Dial: 1 - 01

Notes

This watch has always been in the family of Henri Rodanet Jaeger made only two watches like the present one; one for Louis Cartier (illustrated in "Le Temps de Cartier", by Jader Barracca, Giampiero Negretti and Franco Nencini, page 194), the other for Henri Rodanet, the chairman of the company. Henri Rodanet (1884-1956) Administrator and technical director of Jaeger, he came from a horological family. His grandfather, Hilaire Rodanet, invented a remarkable marine chronometer for which he received a medal at the Paris Exposition des produits de l?Industrie Française. Henri Rodanet was orphaned at an early age and was taken in by a maternal uncle. It was there that he first discovered his passion for horology. He then was trained at the Ecole d'Horlogerie et de Micromécanique de Paris, where he was first of his promotion, and upon graduation at the age of 18, he was offered a position by Mr. Jaeger. It was thus that in 1902 Henri Rodanet became the collaborator of Edmond Jaeger, placing his talent and inventivity at the service of Jaeger, as the company developed and grew. During the First World War, Henri Rodanet, who was an interpreter for the English Army, also found the time to design the famous 2??? watch, reference 101. At the request of the Allied Air Forces, he designed a special tachometer. He became the first Technical Director, then the Président Directeur Général of the Jaeger-LeCoultre firm, placing as much emphasis on the purity of line as on technical qualities and precision. He retired in 1952. During the tenure of Henri Rodanet, over 500 patents were registered in the name of the Jaeger-LeCoultre firm.