Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Hong Kong, Apr 23, 2006

LOT 433

?Constant Force? Vacheron & Constantin, Genève, No. 628908. Ebauche made in 1929, finished and cased in the 1990s. Exceptional, macassar wood, gold, black onyx-set, 30 day going, double-barrel, ?remontoire d?égalité?, skeletonized clock in original leather fitted box and traveling case. Recently serviced by Vacheron & Constantin.

HKD 400,000 - 500,000

USD 50,000 - 65,000 / EUR 43,000 - 55,000

Sold: HKD 531,000

C. Rectangular with canted top corners, glazed on all sides, the glass on the back fitted with 3 gold onyx-set shuttered winding and setting apertures, wooded frames with gold borders, molded base with gold border fitted with a small drawer for gold setting and winding keys. D. Painted on the inside of the front glass, Arabic numerals in rectangular black-painted frame with canted corners. Black ?lozenge? hands. M. Magnificently finished, skeletonized and engraved, double-barrel, entire train and the escapement jeweled, straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with Breguet balance spring, ?remontoire d?égalité? with constant force applied to the escape wheel via a spiral spring which is wound by the going train. Signed on case and movement. Dim: Height 25 cm, width 20 cm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 1

As new
Movement: 1

As new
Dial: 1-01

As new

HANDS Original

Notes

According to the Vacheron Constantin archives, twelve ebauches were produced in 1929, with a long-duration, double-barrel, special ?remontoire? with straight lever escapement. Only five are known to have been finished. Three, completed in 1932 and 1933, are illustrated in ?l?Univers de Vacheron Constantin? by Carole Lambelet and Lorette Coen, Genève, p. 396, 398 and 399. Two were cased in the 1990s. The present clock is one of them. The present lot was sold by Antiquorum Geneva on the 11th of October, 2003 as lot 143.