Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, Mar 16, 2014

LOT 383

VACHERON & CONSTANTIN, REF. 4261 MINUTE REPEATER - PINK GOLD & TWO-TONE DIAL Vacheron & Constantin, Genève, movement No. 446002, case No. 276214, Ref. 4261. Completed in 1945. Extremely fine and important, minute-repeating, 18K pink gold wristwatch with two-tone silver dial.

CHF 130,000 - 180,000

HKD 1,300,000 - 1,700,000 / USD 145,000 - 200,000

Sold: CHF 123,750

Three-body, polished and brushed, inclined stepped bezel, flared lugs, snap-on back. Two-tone brushed silver with applied pink gold radial Arabic numerals and baton indexes, outer minute divisions. Pink gold baton hands. 13''', rhodium plated, fausses cotes decoration, 31 jewels, straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, flat balance spring, index 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: 2-10-01

Very good

Patinated

HANDS Original

Notes

Dial, case and movement signed. DIAM. 36.2 mm. THICKNESS 8.5 mm. Production of Vacheron Constantin minute repeating wristwatches in the mid-20th century: ? 38 examples in total, in pink, yellow, white gold and platinum. ? 17 examples in 1942 ? 9 examples in 1944/45 The Property of the Original Owner's Family Consigned by the family of the original owner, the present watch is one of the finest examples of the legendary reference 4261 to be offered at auction. The handsome two-tone silver dial with pink gold numerals and indexes exhibits a mellow patination so prized by collectors of vintage wristwatches. Minute repeaters are considered one of the finest achievements of Vacheron Constantin's production of complicated wristwatches. Since the early 1940s until the mid 1980s, the Geneva Company made only one model of minute repeating wristwatch: the reference 4261.This outstanding wristwatch is considered by collectors and professionals worldwide as perhaps the most elegant minute repeating wristwatch made in the last 60 years. Reference 4261 was fitted with a 12''' caliber movement, generally recognisable by the subsidiary seconds, or the 13''' movement, without subsidiary seconds as in the present watch. Whereas the 12''' movement was fitted in a case with a diameter of 34 mm., the 13''' caliber was cased in a flatter and slightly larger case, measuring 36 mm. in diameter. It appears that no more than 10 examples of reference 4261 were finished with the 13''' movement (without subsidiary seconds), the majority cased in gold.