Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, May 12, 2013

LOT 406

S. SMITH & SON - ONE-MINUTE TOURBILLON WITH GUILLAUME BALANCE S. Smith & Son, 9. Strand, London, Makers to the Admiralty and the Indian Government, Grand Hotel Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London, No. 302.16. The case with London hallmarks for 1912- 13. Fine and very rare, large and heavy 18K gold, keyless pocket chronometer with one-minute tourbillon regulator, 30-hour power-reserve indication and Guillaume balance, entered for Kew Observatory trial in 1914, achieving 90.6 points.

CHF 30,000 - 50,000

HKD 250,000 - 415,000 / USD 32,000 - 53,000

C. Four-body, pommes et filet, by Samuel Smith, mastermark SS, solid, polished, engine-turned back, bolt at 11 to engage the winding, at 1 for the hand-setting. Hinged gold cuvette. D. White enamel, Arabic numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds, 30-hour power-reserve indicator at 12 o?clock. Blued steel spade hands. M. 45 mm (20???), half-plate, fusee and chain, jeweled escapement, one-minute Nicole Nielsen equidistant arm tourbillon carriage, lateral polished steel bridge, English lateral lever escapement with lift on the pallets, Guillaume balance with gold and platinum temperature and meantime adjustment screws, free-sprung blued steel balance spring with Phillips outer terminal curve. Movement signed and numbered, case numbered. DIAM. 57 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-70-01

Good

ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Hairline

HANDS Original

Notes

S. SMITH & SON. The leading London firm for high quality and complicated watches at the end of the 19th Century and during the opening decades of the 20th, was founded by Samuel Smith, jeweler and watchmaker, c. 1851. Watches were made for him by Nicole Nielsen. Alongside the wide range of civilian watches and clocks, Smith?s also made chronometers which performed well and made the firm a supplier to the Admiralty. Under the guidance of Herbert S.A. Smith, the firm developed into a large manufacturing company with its own research laboratories, the family succession being continued a further generation by Sir Alan Herbert Smith, with the company going on to make automobile and aircraft instruments alongside clocks and watches.