Important Watches, Wristwatches and C...

New York, Omni Berkshire Place Hotel, Jun 20, 1998

LOT 268

Louis Berthoud No. 2370, Montre a secondes Garde Temps, vendue a Monsieur de Radzivill, with Paris hallmarks for 1789. Very fine and rare 18K gold early pocket chronometer. C. Three body

USD 35,000 - 40,000

Sold: USD 48,300

C. Three body "a double fond", by Joly No. 115, polished with concealed hinges. D. White enamel of regulator type with eccentric small hour chapter ring above the subsidiary seconds, outer Arabic minute ring on the bezel's border. Blued steel hands. M. Brass full plate, spotted finished with conical pillars, fusee with chain and maintaining poxer, typical Louis Berthoud pivoted detent escapement, four-arm compensation balance with riveted bimetallic rim, trapezoidal weights with gold poising and timing screws, free sprung blued steel helical balance spring and ruby end-stone. Signed on the dial and back plate. Diam. 61 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 8*

Slightly scratched

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 23-51

Later

Partially reprinted

Notes

Recorded in Jean-Claude Sabrier: La Longitude en Met cr. 1'H-Ire de Lotus Berthoud et Henn Motel, Antiquornm Editions, Geneve 1993, p. 392. This newly discovered watch is typical of the early type of Louis Berthoud pocket chronometers. The shape of the balance bridge with two unemployed pivoting holes, reveals that, as most of the early chronometers produced by Louis Berthoud before 1792, this watch was originally fitted with antifriction rollers subsequently replaced by a ruby end-stone. This watch appears for the first time in the records in the register Ouvrages ((mantles (the order book) in December 1789. It was subsequently recorded by Louis Berthoud under the No. 2370 in the Lime dEtablis.senaent, common to Ferdinand and Louis Berthoud. This watch does not appear in the Registre des Montres Marines and therefore does not carry the second serial number. The preserved workshop books were only begun in February 1791, and therefore, the watches produced before this date are only recorded if they were returned to the workshop to be overhauled or restored, which is not the case of this chronometer which apparently was never returned during Berthoud's life.