Important Watches, Wristwatches and C...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Apr 18, 1998

LOT 337

M. Pouzait Inv. et Fec. a Geneve, No. 2014, 12/782. Extremely fine and almost certainly unique extra large 181 gold, centre-seconds, demonstration stopwatch with eccentric dial and early Pouzait lever escapement with extra large seconds beating balance.

CHF 60,000 - 80,000

Sold: CHF 223,500

C. Double body, massive, Louis XVI, engine-turned with glazed back. D. Gold engine-turned by A. Doroit, dated 14-12-1782 (signed on the reverse) with eccentric small, hour and minute Roman chapter ring, centre-seconds ring on the border of the bezel with Arabic numerals. Gold Louis XV hands and serpent counterpoised seconds hand. M. Hinged gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, counterpoised Pouzait lever escapement with divided lift, plain gold five-arm balance covering 93% of the back plate, free sprung flat balance spring, gilt brass balance cock with polished steel end-piece. Signed on the dial. Diam. 81 mm. Diam. of the balance: 50 mm.


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Grading System
Case: 7

Oxidized

Movement: 4

Fair

Dial: 1-51

As new

Partially reprinted

Notes

The safety action, as shown on the drawing, is performed by the pin G outside the ring N, in one direction, and inside the ring, in the other. This watch, which is dated December 1782, according to its extra large size and its glazed back, was undoubtedly made by Molise Pouzait as a demonstration piece for his newly invented lever escapement. It can be assumed that his intention was to present it to the Societe des Arts de Geneve, in the same way that he did for his dead independent seconds mechanism on 9 May 1776. However, by the time the watch was completed, the City of Geneva was in the grip of a revolution and the Societe des Arts was dissolved. Wise Pouzait made a large scale model of his escapement in 1786 for his horological school and it is now preserved in the Musee d'Horlogerie. Up to the recent discovery of this watch, his lever escapement was reputed to have been invented in that same year. This highly important watch brings the evidence that the Poizait lever escapement was invented as early as 1782 and therefore was the earliest lever escapement made in Switzerland and perhaps the earliest ever made on the Continent. The first lever watch, as invented by Thomas Mudge and produced by Josiah Emery in London, was imported in Paris the same year, but the first watch, made by Robert Robin with a lever escapement was not completed before the beginning of 1783. Unfortunately for Moise Pouzait, although his escapement was the first ever made in Switzerland, several others were already produced, both in France and Switzerland, in 1786, when the Societe des Arts was reestablished and therefore the Pouzait lever escapement has never been discussed by the Eminent Society. Described by Major Paul Chamberlain in It's About Time, Richard R. Smith, New York, 1941, page 65-66.