$68,500
International Watch Co. , Schaffhau-sen, "Grande Complication", No. 18/ 50, Ref. 3770. Produced in a limited edition of 50 examples in 1990. Very fine and extremely rare, oversized, astronomic, minute-repeating, self-winding, platinum gentleman’s wristwatch with 44 hours autonomy, square button chronograph, registers, perpetual calendar and moon phases and a platinum IWC buckle. Accompanied by a fitted box and a certificate. three-body, massive, polished, case back with screws, pyra-midal bezel, curved straight lugs, screwed-down crown, sap-phire crystal. white enamel with applied yellow gold in-dexes, auxiliary dials for the seconds, the 12 hour and 30 minute registers, the days of the month, the week and the months, apertures for the year and moon phases. Bâton yellow gold hands. Cal 79091, rhodium-plated, "fausses côtes" de-coration, 68 jewels, lever escapement, monometallic balance, shock-absorber, self-compensating flat balance spring, repea-ting on gongs by activating slide on the band. Dial, case and movement signed. Diam. 42 mm. Notes In the 1870's, American-born Florentine Ariosto Jones, _who had been appointed director of the E. Howard & Co. watchmaking factory in Boston at the early age of 27_, decided to manufacture high-quality movements and watch parts for the American market using American technology and skilled labor from Switzerland, where wages were comparatively low. However, the skilled wor-kers in the Geneva region and in the remote valleys of t
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2002-09-25
