48,300 CHF
F. Ls. Favre, Locle, 1840. Exceptional and highly important 18K gold early lever pocket chronometer with stop feature, foudroyante, dead-seconds, and Réaumur thermometer. Four-body, “Empire”, No. 21662, engine-turned, gold hinged cuvette, bolt at 4 for start/stop. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, three subsidiary seconds dials, above for continuous seconds, at 4 o’clock for fifth-seconds jump, and dead-seconds at 8. Notes The present watch is of the same quality as Breguet’s “garde temps”. The escapement is of the highest quality; the pallets are equidistant and with proper draw, it has a double roller to decrease friction, and a fast-beat chronometer balance with graduation for easy temperature adjustment. The balance also has a device to protect the free ends of each sector from accidental distortion, sometimes employed in the best English chronometers. Balance sensitivity is inversely proportional to the total thickness of the rim, however, overly thin rims are fragile and thus more susceptible to deformation caused by centrifugal force. The device in the present watch was invented about 1800 to prevent such damage. The most remarkable feature of this watch is the design of the dead seconds and fifth seconds diablotine. Surely invented by Favre, it is found in no other watch. The dead seconds are ingeniously advanced every second by a lever lifted by a 60-tooth ratchet wheel set on the 4th wheel arbor. The lever, lifted every second advanc
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-11-14
