25,300 CHF
Patek, Philippe & Cie, Genève, No. 132654, case No. 239404, made in 1905 and sold on July 29, 1911. Extremely fine silver deck lever chronometer adjusted for the 1909 Kew Observatory Timing Contest, with 36-hour power reserve indicator and Guillaume balance. Accompanied by the Extract from the Archives. Four-body, “bassine”, polished, silver hinged cuvette. Solid silver, bold champlevé radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, up-and-down sector at 12, and subsidiary seconds. Blued-steel “spade” hands. 47 mm. (21”’), Cal. 18o, 20 jewels, straight line calibrated lever escapement, anibal-brass Guillaume balance with “winged” arms, gold temperature adjustment screws and platinum mean time screws, special alloy Breguet balance spring with inner and outer terminal curves, diamond endstone, “swan-neck” micrometric regulator.Dial, case and movement signed, movement numbered twice, as per Geneva Observatory requirements.Diam. 60 mm. Notes For a note on watches made for Observatory Timing Contests, see lot 91. Anibal acier au nickel pour balanciers, an alloy invented by Dr. Charles Edouard Guillaume, exhibits unusual properties, both in terms of thermal expansion and in changes in elasticity. Around 1900 Guillaume attempted to eliminate the so-called Middle Temperature Error caused by the fact that the change of rate in a timekeeper with a steel-brass bimetallic balance is approximately a linear function of temperature, while the change of rate caused by change in elasticity o
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-11-14
