Important Watches, Collectors’ Wristw...

Hotel Noga Hilton, Nov 14, 2004

LOT 52

Jaques Morel, Geneva, circa 1690. Fine and rare silver, pair-cased, early balance spring, single-hand pocket watch with alarm.

CHF 12,000 - 14,000

EUR 8,000 - 9,000 / USD 10,000 - 11,000

Sold: CHF 12,650

C. Outer: two-body, silver and leather-covered copper, silver studs. Inner: two-body, ?bassine?, polished back, band pierced and engraved with inhabited foliage. D. Silver ring with radial Roman numerals, inner quarter-hour divisions, center with revolving silver alarm disc with champlevé radial Arabic numerals and fitted with steel hour pointer. Blued steel ?poker? alarm setting hand. M. 37 mm, hinged, frosted gilt full-plate with vase pillars, fusee and chain, 4-wheel train set in the old way on the periphery of the plates, verge escapement brass balance with flat balance spring, continental cock.Movement signed. Diam. 52 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3 - 12
Movement: 3 - 22*
Dial: 3 - 01

Notes

This is a good example of early Geneva watchmaking, shortly after the 1675 invention of the balance spring. The watch still features a single hand and the train runs around the periphery of the movement, which later curved into the center for the center wheel onto which the minute hand was fit. It has an unusual balance end-screw instead of the brass plug which was common at the time. Jaques Morel a master horologist, he taught Joseph Cassegrain in 1677 and André Gardelle in 1697. Dictionnaire des horlogers genevois, by Osvaldo Patrizzi, Antiquorum Editions, 1998.