Important Watches, Collector's Wristw...

The Ritz-carlton Hotel, Jun 06, 2004

LOT 83

Unrecorded Resilient Lever Escapement M.G. Cole, Inv. London & Bexley Heath, No. 1508, hallmarked 1886-87. Highly important and very fine silver watch with ?Improved Resilent Lever? escapement.

HKD 180,000 - 230,000

EUR 19,000 - 25,000 / USD 23,000 - 30,000

Sold: HKD 241,500

C. four-body, ?bassine et filets?, polished, silver, hinged cuvette. D. silvered, champlevé Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, subsidiary seconds. Blued steel ?Spade? hands. M. 48 mm, gilt brass half-plate, going barrel, lever escapement set at about 150 degrees with lift on the pallets, fork with additional lever banking in patented C-shaped spring-loaded bracket to prevent damage from overbanking, massive cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel helical free-sprung balance spring with terminal curves.Signed on dial and movement.Diam. 64 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3 - 6 - 01

Notes

The resilient lever escapement was invented by James Ferguson Cole around 1830. It became well known, to the point that Edward Howard employed it in a considerable number of his watches. The elastic action was achieved by reversely inclined slopes of the escape wheel. The pallets, after the draw, bank on the inclined slopes and the recoil action of the escape wheel causes elastic banking, which considerably decreases the risk of damage to the impulse pin. About 40 years later Mortimer G. Cole began a series of experiments with this escapement which resulted in at least three patents (English: March 4, 1869 and January 10, 1871. USA: July 20, 1875 filed on Oct. 25, 1871). The American patent is the closest to the design found in the present watch. Apparently, Cole improved his last version, which he inscribed on the plate as ?Impd Resilient Lever?. He assigned the rights to the patent to James Hoddell & Co. of Coventry.