Important Watches, Wristwatches and C...

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Apr 12, 1997

LOT 591

Lars Dd. Baillod cc l'Orient de Neuchatel en Suisse EL 5 rier qL 5"83 le _Same niois de 5793 (1793). Very fine and extremely rare 18K gold and enamel, quarter repeating Masonic watch.

CHF 24,000 - 28,000

Sold: CHF 25,300

C. Double body, Directoire, the back enamel panel painted with an allegory evoking the Masonic Republic and the advent of the Decimal Republican time, with the Masonic motto "Sagesse, Force et Beaute". D. White enamel with the twelve principal Masonic symbols in place of numerals. Gold "sun and Breguet" hands. M. Hinged gilt brass full plate with cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-arm balance, flat balance spring, gilt brass continental cock pierced and engraved with the symbolic tools of the Free Masons, garnet end-stone. Repeating on a bell by depressing the pendant. The gilt brass dial plate is engraved with the sentence: "Souvenez vows jue chez les vrais ma0ons, la vertue fail le rang et l'homme le plus juste est aussi le plus grand". Signed on the back plate with the characters of the Masonic alphabet. In very good condition. Diam.56 mm.


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Notes

Masonic watches from the end of the 18th century are very rare. They were at the origin of the fashion of watches with decorated dials, much in favour on inexpensive silver "populaires" watches, from 1790 to 1820. Such watches were almost never produced in gold and their decoration was generally very naive. This watch, made of gold, with the painted back panel of exceptional quality, its quarter repeating movement, the Masonic dial, cock signature and inscription, is almost certainly unique.