278,500 CHF
Signed Patek Philippe & Cie. , Genève, movement No. 20499, case No. 60963 circa 1860. Very fine and highly important 18K gold hunting-cased keyless pocket chronometer with one-minute tour-billon regulator and chronometer escapement. Four-body, "bassine et filets", engine-turned, gold hinged cuvette with engine-turned border. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, subsidiary sunk seconds at 9 o’clock. Gold paste-set hands. 45 mm (20’’’), nickel, spotted back plate, bridge caliber decorated with zig-zag damascening, 19 jewels, 3-arm steel tourbillon carriage with two straight arms and one lyre-shaped, pivoted detent escapement, detent held in locking position by a long thin spring, gold escape wheel, cut-compensation balance with gold temperature and mean time screws, blued steel balance spring with terminal curve and amplitude-controlling device. Signed on the cuvette, case punched with Neuchâtel mark, movement punched W. Hoff, No. 20499, Chaux-de-Fonds.Diam. 53 mm. Notes The present watch bears only the casemaker’s and watchmaker’s numbers and not the Patek Philippe serial number. Patek Philippe watches without company serial numbers are very rare, but they do exist. In the Patek Philippe Museum there is a carriage clock which the company probably made for the 1851 London Exhibition, a beautiful clock which is not numbered. Two other unnumbered pieces were sold by the company; fortunately they are accompanied by the original Patek invoice, dat
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-04-24
