35,650 CHF
Pierre Benoit, Paris, circa 1808, finshed by A. Benoit à Versailles, No. 216, circa 1840. Very fine and very rare 20K gold pocket watch with double chronograph, with central dead-seconds and early lever escapement built on Breguet’s principles. Accompanied by a short gold chain and ratchet key. Four-body, No. 836, by master casemaker Ami Gros, “Empire”, engine-turned back with central enameled initials, reeded band, gold cuvette. White enamel, by Droz, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions with fifteen-minute Arabic markers, subsidiary sunk seconds. Gold Breguet hands. Notes Achille-Hubert Benoit, born in 1804, was just a child when the watch was started by his father, who at the time was working for Breguet. After inheriting his father’s workshop, the son finished the movement, fitted it with a dial and sold it under his own name. The watch features many similarities to Breguet’s work: the dead-seconds mechanism, identical to that of Breguet; the escapement, typical of those used in Breguet’s “garde temps”; as well as the casemaker, who often worked for Breguet. However, several features are not found in Breguet’s work: the experimental conical pivots of the balance staff; the gold escape wheel; the subsidiary seconds driven by an additional pinion which can be disengaged thereby allowing them to be used as a second chronograph or for precision time setting; and the hand set through the band via a small key. Achille-Hubert Benoit 1804-1895 was the son of watchm
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-11-14
