Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Hong Kong, Apr 28, 2019

LOT 461

RIEUSSEC POCKET PROGRESSIVE COUNTER WITH INKING-CHRONOGRAPH; SILVER

HKD 70,000 - 95,000

CHF 8,900 - 11,850 / USD 9,000 - 12,000

Silver (0.800), open-face, key-winding, round-shaped, "forme quatre baguettes", pocket progressive counter with 1/5 inking-chronograph. White enamel dial with division in seconds numbered in groups of five, subsidiary dial for the fifth of a second (at 6 o'clock); push-pieces for "marche / arrêt" (on / off) (top left) and "pointage" (pointing) (top right); blued steel hands.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent

Case: 3

Good

Movement: 3-6*

Good

Slightly oxidized

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense

Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Brand Nicolas-Mathieu Rieussec

Model "Chronographe Brevet d'invention", retailed by Chaudé & Bruneau, Paris (rue Neuve des Petits Champs, No. 13)

Year circa 1835

Movement No. 4

Calibre  26''', full plate, gilded brass, with going barrel, cylinder escapement, monometallic balance (gilded brass) and blued steel flat hairspring

Case No. 22

Material silver

Caliber 26''', full plate, gilded brass, with going barrel, cylinder escapement, monometallic balance (gilded brass) and blued steel flat hairspring

Dimensions Ø 70 mm.

Signature Cuvette

Notes

Rieussec inking-chronograph The chronograph is a mechanical instrument that can measure the duration of an event or an observation and was invented by Nicolas-Mathieu Rieussec (1781-1852) in 1821. Etymologically, the word originates from the Greek terms Khrônos (time) and Graphos (graphein, inscribe, write, draw). Nicolas-Mathieu Rieussec was born in Toulouse in 1781; although he was still a minor, he settled as a watch dealer in rue du Marché-Palu on the Ile de la Cité, circa 1802, where he was still working in 1812. After he had been appointed watchmaker to the King at the beginning of the 1817, Rieussec requested on June 1st, of the same year, the title of Watchmaker to the Garde-Meuble, of which he had already been a supplier for the last two years; he was not appointed until the following year (Paris, Archives Nationale, côte O3 1886). His son, Joseph-Ferdinand Rieussec, born in Paris on December 15, 1804, also became watchmaker and worked on 13, rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs during the Restauration, and later on 4, boulevard Bourdon under Louis-Philippe. Rieussec, was the first to patent an inking chronograph in 1821, it was then with a fixed inking hand and a revolving dial. This chronograph was improved in 1823 by Fatton for Breguet, with a revolving inking hand and a normal dial. This counter is a fine and very rare example of the final development of the inking chronograph, signed by Rieussec himself towards the end of his career, after he took Chaudé & Bruneau as partners. The No. 4 suggests that it was made early in their partnership, circa 1835-1836. The history of the Rieussec inking-chronograph ?? origin, invention and development ?? has been described in detail in our latest Geneva catalogue: Antiquorum, Geneva, auction, November 11, 2019, lot 493, p. 301. Séchéret, Léopold, master casemaker His hallmark was registered on may 29, 1834. He works for Nicolas-Mathieu Rieussec (1781-1852), the house Breguet (Breguet & Fils, then Breguet Neveux & Cie), Joseph Thadeus Winnerl (1799-1886), etc.