27,600 CHF
Dubois et Fils, Swiss, circa 1800. Fine and rare 18 ct. gold dead centre seconds watch with special escapement, pirouette and pendulum. Double body, "forme quatre baguettes" with reeded bezels and band. Eccentric white enamel with Breguet numerals and small circular aperture for the pendulum, outer centre seconds ring. Blued steel Breguet hands. Hinged gilt brass with cylindrical pillars, fusee with chain, rare double wheel frictional rest escapement of Debaufre type, as improved by Pierre Le Roy the eldest, pirouette with mock pendulum, plain brass five-arm balance with flat balance spring, gilt brass continental cock with polished steel end-piece. Signed on the dial and back plate. In very good condition. Diam. 56 mm. Notes Very good example of an unusual arrangement for dead centre seconds watch. This form of Debaufre frictional rest escapement was invented by Pierre Le Roy, the brother of Julien. It was described in Histoire et Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, for 1742, Paris 1745, pp.158-161, and in Gallon: Recueil des Machines et Inventions approuvées par l'Académie Royale des Sciences,1742, No.449, Vol. VII, Paris 1777, pp. 128-138 with plate. Similar watch described and illustrated in Camerer Cuss, Antique Watches, pl. 125 and in Daniels and Clutton Watches, pl. 195. Previously in the collection of The Time Museum, this watch was sold by Sotheby's in New York on 11 December 1986, lot 155 of the catalogue.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
1994-10-15
