Exceptional Collectors Timepieces, Ho...

Geneva, May 15, 2005

LOT 148

Vacheron & Constantin, Genève, ?Chrono-mètre?, No. 352060, case No. 219307. Made in 1911. Very fine and rare 18K gold keyless, hunting-cased, minute-repeating pocket lever chronometer with chronograph and 30-minute register.

CHF 14,000 - 18,000

EUR 9,000 - 12,000 / USD 12,000 - 15,000

Sold: CHF 21,850

C. Five-body, ?bassine?, polished, hinged and sprung frontcover with engraved foliate monogram, the inside withengraved presentation inscription. Hinged gold cuvette.D. White enamel, Breguet numerals, outer minute trackwith chronograph track divided into fifths, 30-minute registerat 12, subsidiary seconds at 6. Gold ?spade? hands.M. Cal. R.A.19-20 39/12, frosted gilt, 36 jewels, straight line leverescapement, cut-bimetallic compensation balance, Breguet balance spring, swan-neck micrometer regulator,repeating on gongs via activating slide in the band.Dial, case and movement signed.Diam. 55 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2

Very good
Dial: 2 - 01

Notes

The more complicated a timepiece is, the more difficult it is to adjust, particularly as concerns complications such as a chronograph, split-seconds function, and/or a register. The additional wheelwork affects the timepiece's functioning, because of the amount of energy required - but often only sporadically, when, for example, the chronograph is in use -and because of the friction to which the moving parts of the mechanism - levers, springs, etc. - are subjected. It is there-fore exceptional to find a timepiece with so many complications and which was submitted to Observatory control. For an example of a very similar watch, No. 370992, see: Antiquorum, ?The Quarter Millennium of Vacheron Constantin?, Geneva, April 3, 2005, lot 122.