102,500 CHF
God Save the KingAttributed to Eduard JeanRichard, Le Locle, made for the British market, No. 10591, circa 1920 with British import marks for 1922-23.Exceptionally fine and extremely rare 18K gold hunting-cased keyless quarter-repeating carillon watch with "God Save the King" chimes on seven hammers and seven gongs. Four-body, "bassine" polished, gold hinged cuvette. Silver, champlevé Arabic numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary sunk seconds, large aperture at the top to view the movement. Blued steel "spade" hands. Notes This watch, with carillon repeating on such a large number of gongs, is virtually unique. Eduard JeanRichard specialized in musical watches, making among other things, a carillon watch of seven gongs playing the Swiss National Anthem. In the 1920's, the company advertised that it made carillon watches, playing, among other tunes, "God Save the King". The sonnerie movement is based on the invention by Henri Golay in 1859 for striking watches with minute-repeating mechanism. Very few were made.JeanRichard began his career as an ebauche maker for other companies. In 1915 he found his own retail company. His movements are very characteristic. Certain features are found only in his watches, such as the shape of the spring for the surprise element, the steel insert at the barrel bridge, the specific shape of the star bridge, etc. In the Musée International d'Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds there is a watch by him playing the "Ranz des vaches"
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2003-04-12
