$123,500
Breguet, Grand Complication "Tour-billon 1801 - 2001", No. 886, Ref. 1801BB. Produced expressely in 2001 in a special edition to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the invention of the tourbillon by Abraham-Louis Breguet. Extremely fine, rare and important, large, hunter case-type, water-resistant, 18K white gold gentleman's wristwatch with one minute tourbillon regulator and an 18K white gold Bre-guet deployant clasp. Accompanied by a fitted box and tourbillon certificate. four-body, solid, polished and brushed, hinged hand-"guil-loché" cover with porthole and engraved "Tourbillon" plaque, opened by a co-axial push-button in the winding crown, trans-parent case back to view the movement, reeded band, straight lugs with gold-screwed bars, sapphire crystals. Cal. 557 entirely hand-engraved and signed "Tourbillon Breguet Nr. 1879. Brevet du 7 Messidor ans 9", 21 jewels, lateral lever escapement with one minute tourbillon regulator with 3 equidistant arms, mono-metallic balance adjusted to 6 positions, shock-absorber, self-compensating Breguet balance-spring. Dial, case and movement signed. Diam. 42 mm. Notes On June 26, 1801 - or according to the shortlived republican calendar of the time, 7 Messidor, year IX - A.L. Breguet received a patent from the French Ministery of the Interior for a new regu-lating device for watches, the Tourbillon. Technically an innovative and complex mechanism, only 35 watches of this kind were sold between 1805 and 1823, the year of
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2002-09-25
