Important Watches, Collectors’ Wristw...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Nov 14, 2004

LOT 421

?Triple-Axis Toubillon? Richard Good and Son, Seaford, England, No. 1, ?Invenit et Fecit 1979?. Highly important and spectacular massive gilt brass carriage clock with triple-axis tourbillon carriage and constant force escapement. In wooden traveling case.

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Sold: CHF 193,250

C. Glazed on all sides and top, heavy gilt brass molded base with four square feet, four columns with zigzag pattern, molded top with hinged handle. D. Silvered disc with champlevé radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, subsidiary seconds at the top. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. Rectangular, 170 x 80 mm, heavy gilt brass, six faceted pillars, large going barrel, six-wheel train driving the triple axis tourbillon carriage built on the principle of spherical differential with straight line constant force lever escapement,cut-bimetallic compensation balance with flat balance spring, Incablock anti-shock device, the outside beveled gear with adjustment screws. Signed on the dial.Dim. 21.5 cm high (including handle), base 13.3 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good

Movement: 2

Very good

Dial: 2- 01

Very good

Notes

Collection, Richard Good?s possession until his death. Sold by the family afterwards. Literatur@Edescribed and illustrated in ?The Horological Journal?, April 1983, pp. 15-19, mentioned in numerous other publications. One does not need to be a connoisseur of horology to admire the intricacy of this three-axis tourbillion whose carriage rotates like a complicated astronomical model, which in fact it is. When we first saw it, we let it run for a good ten minutes, just to stare at it, and marvel at the tourbillon?s three cages, all rotating in every direction! This was, without a doubt, one of the most remarkable horological experiences we have had with tourbillons. On October 11, 1979, during a lecture at the Science Museum in London, Richard Good publicly announced his plan to build a tourbillon that would entirely eliminate positional errors. At the time he had apparently started work on the project. Finished by the end of the year, the clock was called ?No. 1, the present clock.? This is the present clock. Seth Atwood, the owner of the Time Museum, having heard about the clock, wanted to purchase it. But the clock was not for sale. It had already been promised to Stanley Burton, the owner of one of the most successful British garment chains. However, there was a clause that after Burton?s death, the clock would return to its maker. The clock was thus returned to Good, who kept it until his death. Atwood, who was not accustomed to refusals, asked Richard Good to make one for his museum. By the end of 1981 the Time Museum had one in the form of a marine chronometer. When the museum closed and all other the remarkable clocks and watches were sold, Mr. Atwood kept his three-axis tourbillon clock. Richard Good stated in a 1983 letter dated June 28th 2003, that the clock was unique and took him and his son a year and a half to build. The need for a triple axis tourbillon is due to the fact that although most positional errors are eliminated by a regular tourbillon, some causes of residual positional error remain. Sagging of the balance spring, horizontal and vertical play in the balance staff, differences in the friction exerted on the balance in different positions, can all cause small residual error. Averaging the rate while running the balance in all possible positions in three-axis theoretically eliminates these errors. The concept was first expressed in 1921 by Sir David Salomons who wrot@E?Breguet invented the tourbillon, which gets rid of certain position errors, but if the balance again turned a complete revolution out of its plane at the same time the tourbillon was working, then all position errors disappear??. The plan of construction, first expressed by Anthony Randall before 1978, is based on spherical differential. The last train wheel is fixed vertically with the first carriage (G in the drawing). The other end is pivoted inside beveled gear J mounted permanently to the plate. Through the center of the carriage comes an axis K, terminating with a wheel H, which gears with the beveled gear J. The carriage rotates around the axis K, achieving rotation in the first axis. The other end of K is fixed with a beveled wheel F. The center of K is fixed with a brass-toothed hub M which forms the second carriage with the arbor S running through it between small ball bearings and having at one end fixed wheel E, gearing with the beveled wheel F. This results in rotation in the second axis. This is a flying carriage, just as in a flying tourbillon because only one end is supported it is fixed by the hub M to K, the other end is free. The other end of the arbor S is fixed with the rectangular carriage carrying the lever escapement. Its escape wheel revolves around wheel M, completing rotation in the third axis. And again this carriage is also a flying tourbillon supported only at its base. was awarded a diploma with honors from the National College of Horology in 1951 and subsequently worked in the Design and Development department of S. Smith & Sons, where he specialized in watch adjustment. Later he became general manager of Thomas Mercer. There he designed a fuse without lubricant for the atomic bomb of Polaris missiles used in British nuclear submarines. Afterwards he was offered a position as Managing Director of A. & M. Fell. After departure from Fell he went into business on his own account. Charged for a period with the care of the horological collection at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, he also specialized in the restoration of complicated watches. It was at this time that he designed a number of limited production clocks, including the triple-axis tourbillon timepieces. In 1978, Good joined the British Museum as Curator of Horology. While there, he collaborated on the "Catalogue of Precision Watches", and began work on the ?Catalogue of Lever Watches?, currently in progress. In addition he wrote four other books and numerous articles. He was a Fellow and silver medalist of the British Horological Institute, as well as being on the livery of the Clockmakers? Company and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.