Only Online Auction
Hong Kong, Mar 03, 2021
LOT 275
Stauffer & Co.
Historical pocket watch, minute-repeater, chronograph, minute counter; 18K yellow gold
HKD 52,000 - 69,000
CHF 6,000 - 8,000 / EUR 5,600 - 7,400 / USD 6,700 - 8,900
18K yellow gold, half hunting-case, keyless-winding, round-shaped, pocket watch, with subsidiary seconds at 6 and three horological complications:
· Minute-repeater on two steel gongs by two hammers (activated by the slide at 6 o’clock)
· 1/5 second chronograph (activated by the olive-shaped push-piece located on the case-band at 12 o’clock)
· Instantaneous 30-minute counter (subsidiary dial at 12 o’clock)
Cuvette engraved in taille-douce (fine cut) with the dedication “For Long Service / Presented / to / John Gray. / Together with a certificate / On his completing 15 years services with / Lever Brothers / Limited / Port Sunlight. / 24th June, 1913.”.
Movement 20’’’, gilded brass, going barrel, straight-line lever escapement, cut compensated balance and blued steel hairspring with terminal curve, polished steel index-regulator.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: AAA |
Excellent |
Case: 2 |
Very good |
Movement: 2 * |
|
Dial: 2-01 |
Very good HANDS Original |
Brand Stauffer & Co., London and La Chaux-de-Fonds
Year circa 1910-1913
Movement No. 300 592
Case No. 300 592 (by Charles Nicolet, London)
Material 18K yellow gold
Diameter 52.5 mm.
Caliber 20’’’, straight-line lever escapement
Weight 124.4 gr. (approx.)
Signature movement
Notes
LeverBrothers Ltd., Port Sunlight (Merseyside, England)
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever (1851-1925), 1st Viscount Leverhulme, and James Darcy Lever (1854-1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson. Lever Brothers entered the United States market in 1895 and acquired Mac Fisheries, owner of T. Wall & Sons, in 1925. Lever Brothers was one of several British companies that took an interest in the welfare of its British employees. Its brands included “Lifebuoy”, “Lux” and “Vim”. Lever Brothers merged with Margarine Unie to form Unilever in 1930.
--
Gray, John
John Gray became a director of Lever Brothers Limited in 1907 and succeeded P. J. Winser as General Works Manager (Managing Director?) at Port Sunlight (Merseyside, England). He was Vice Chairman of Lever Brothers Ltd., 1918-1920, and then after an illness in 1921, became chairman of Gossages.
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Stauffer & Co. – Stauffer, Son & Co., London and La Chaux-de-Fonds
This company was founded circa 1830 by Robert Stauffer in La Chaux-de-Fonds. His son Jules Stauffer opened a London branch together with Francis Claude around 1857; it was called Stauffer, Son & Co., and its purpose was the sale of Swiss watches in London (12 Old Jewry Chambers). After Jules Stauffer’s death in 1884, Claude entered a partnership with Charles Nicolet, who had been in London since the 1870s. Before coming to London, Nicolet had attended the watchmaking school in La Chaux-de-Fonds for three years. After the retirement of Francis Claude, Charles Nicolet took over management of the company in London and in La Chaux-de-Fonds.The Watchmaker Jeweller and Silversmith reported on the watches, chromometers and repeating watches exhibited by them at the Inventions Exhibition of 1885. Listed in Directories at this period as wholesale watch manufacturers and importers, they moved to 13 Charterhouse Street, Holborn, London EC in 1887.