Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong, Jul 10, 2005

LOT 258

?Italy, Southern and Eastern Europe? Vaucher Frères, La Chaux-de-Fonds & Genève, No.11824. Made for the Oriental Market circa 1830. Very fine and rare, 18K gold and champlevé enamel pocket watch.

HKD 50,000 - 65,000

EUR 5,200 - 7,000 / USD 6,500 - 8,500

Sold: HKD 241,500

C. Four-body, ? Empire?, hinged bezel decorated with gold flowerson a black enamel ground, black enameled pendant andbow, the back cover decorated with a map of Italy and southernand eastern Europe in black and turquoise enamel, the coastlines,relief and place-names in gold. Hinged gilt metal cuvette.D. Silver with brushed chapter ring, radial Roman numerals,outer minute track, subsidiary seconds, matte engine turnedcenter. Blued steel Breguet hands. M. 49 mm., frosted gilt, barcaliber, standing barrel, cylinder escapement, three-arm brassbalance, blued steel flat balance spring, index regulator.Cuvette signed.Diam. 56 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3 - 40 - 49
Movement: 3*

Good

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

Notes

Vaucher Frères Are recorded working in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Geneva between 1780 and 1830. See: ?Dictionnaire des Horlogers Genevois?, Osvaldo Patrizzi, pp. 394. A watch decorated with a map of France and evidently made by the same hand was sold by Antiquorum, Exceptional horologic works of art, Geneva, November, 10, 2003. Enameled maps are rare. Breguet made a few, several others are known to have been made for the Oriental market. The making of them was a painstaking job. First an engraver had to chisel out the gold, leaving the names of towns and rivers, etc. Then the enameller filled in the reserved space with enamels, leaving the outlines and place names in gold.