Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, May 12, 2013

LOT 279

SILVER QUARTER-STRIKING & REPEATING COACH WATCH Michael Anthoni Wincker a Augusta (Augsburg), No. 2. Made circa 1740. Very fine and rare, large, silver, four-train coach watch with hour and quarter striking and pull-repeating, date and alarm.

CHF 12,000 - 18,000

HKD 100,000 - 150,000 / USD 13,000 - 20,000

C. Two-body, bassine, the bezel decorated with engraved laurel swags, the back with engraved laurel band, the border pierced for sound and engraved with laurel swags to match the bezel, four winding apertures, strike/silent lever in the dial plate, pendant with loose barrel and ring. D. Convex white enamel with bold radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and large Arabic five minute numerals, outer date ring, inner alarm disc with Arabic numerals and half and quarter hour markers, foliate engraved gilt dial plate. Pierced gilt beetle and poker hands. M. 90 mm., gilt, full-plate, flared cylindrical pillars with applied silver foliate frets, fusee with chain, foliate engraved spring barrels for the striking, repeating and alarm trains, polished steel hammers, verge escapement, three-arm brass balance, blued steel flat balance-spring, pierced, chased and engraved continental balance cock, polished steel endplate with faceted red stone, silver regulator disc, pull quarter repeating, striking and alarm on a bell in the back of the case, with independent trains for quarters and hours, a lever for silence/strike. Movement signed and engraved with the arms of Augsburg. DIAM. 113 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AA

Very good
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-9-24-01

Good

Scratched

Slightly chipped

HANDS Original

Notes

Augusta is the original Roman name for the City of Augsburg. The movement of the present watch is also engraved with the arms of Augsburg ? a pinecone above a Corinthian capital, the symbol of Augsburg since 1237. The Augsburg watchmakers and those in nearby Friedburg specialized in the production of repeating and striking watches. From the beginning of the 18th century, they were making watches and coach watches with quarter, half quarter and even minute repeating mechanisms and selling them all over Europe. The cases, often of very high quality, were produced in Augsburg and the movements were made in the style of the country for which they were destined. Some of them were signed by their makers, some bear signatures of eminent French and English makers (perhaps at their request, when they were retailing them), still others bear the signature of their makers, written backwards, together with the names of cities in which they were intended to be sold. For an article on German watches by Christian Pfeiffer Belli, see: Antiquorum Vox Magazine, Spring 2006, p. 14.