Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, Mar 16, 2014

LOT 272

HENRY MOSER - "LES ENFANTS RUSSES" - EXCEPTIONAL RUSSIAN MARKET MINUTE-REPEATING & PERPETUAL CALENDAR WATCH MADE FOR PRINCE SERGE ALEXANDROVITCH DOLGOROUKY Hy. Moser & Cie, (Le Locle & St. Petersburg), No. 25906. Made for Russian Prince Serge Alexandrovitch Dolgorouky, circa 1913. Extremely fine and very rare, large and heavy, minute-repeating, 18K gold, painted on enamel and diamond-set keyless hunting cased pocket watch with perpetual calendar and moon phases.

CHF 50,000 - 60,000

HKD 435,000 - 522,000 / USD 56,000 - 67,000

Sold: CHF 62,500

Four-body, bassine et filets, polished with engraved borders, band and bow, the front cover decorated with the finely painted on enamel coat of arms of the Dolgorouky family, rose-cut diamond-set banner above and the date 1913 below, the back cover with a scene of a boy and girl in winter costume finely painted on enamel and set with rose-cut diamonds against a polished background. Hinged gold cuvette with champlevé enamel signatures, glazed gold-rimmed cover to view the movement. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary dials for the seconds, date, days of the week and months with leap-year indication (in Cyrillic), aperture for the moon phases with lunar calendar at the edge. Blued steel Breguet hands. 21''', rhodium plated, fausses cotes decoration, 31 jewels, counterpoised straight line lever escapement, the fork and escape wheel with gold jewel caps, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, swan-neck micrometer regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2*

Very good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 2-01

Very good

HANDS Original

Notes

Dial, case, cuvette and movement signed. DIAM. 60 mm. The present watch is a particularly fine and complicated example of Moser's watches that were made specifically for the company's Russian clientele. Of very large size, the heavy gold case is exquisitely decorated in enamel with both the Dolgorouky coat of arms and a charming depiction of two children with diamond-set details. The case as expected houses a complicated watch with both minute-repeating and perpetual calendar functions. Another watch by Patek Philippe also enameled with the Dolgorouky arms is illustrated in: "Patek Philippe", Huber & Banbery, 1993, p. 210. THE PRINCE DOLGOROUKY The Princely family Dolgorouky descends from Ivan Andreievitch Obolensky nicknamed Dolgorouky, a descendant of Rurikid Prince Constantin Yourievitch of Obolensk, a descendant of Mikhail Vsevolodovitch Prince of Tshernigov and Grandduke of Kiev. PRINCE SERGE ALEXANDROVITCH was born in 1883 and was Aide-de-Camp to Czar Nicholas II. GEORGE HEINRICH (Henry, Henri) MOSER (1844-1923) Swiss watchmaker, son of Johan Heinrich Moser, a clockmaker, moved to St. Petersburg about 1827, where he opened a watch business (Nevskii Prospect and Malaya Konyushennaya St.). He had also a branch in Moscow. Moscow registers shows that he had an office there from 1827 to 1874 on Ilinka St. In 1874 the son Henry Moser, Jr. took over the business. The Moser Co. did business all over Russia, including such far places as Vladivostock in Siberia. In the third quarter of the 19th century they became suppliers to the Tsar.