8,125 CHF
SPECIAL ESCAPEMENT, QUARTER REPEATER Père Bouhelier, No. 715. Made circa 1830. Very fine and rare, 18K gold, quarter-repeating pocket watch with special lever escapement. Four-body, “bassine et fi lets”, engine-turned and polished, the back with small monogram “AR”, engine-turned band. Hinged gilt metal cuvette engraved with the technical details. Engine-turned silver with radial champlevé Roman numerals, outer minute divisions. Gold Breguet hands. 48 mm., frosted gilt, 12 jewels, standing barrel, special polished steel lateral lever escapement with elongated lever arm, the fork engaging a locking pin on the balance pivot, polished steel three-arm balance with blued steel laminae on the upper surface, blued steel fl at balance spring, index regulator, repeating with two massive polished steel hammers on two gongs activated by a pull-and-twist piston in the pendant, polished steel repeating work under the dial. Cuvette signed. Diam. 53 mm. Notes Père Bouhelier A native of Saint Julien, a small village near Charquemont, in Franche Comte, where his surname was very common. Although mostly farmers, the population made cylinder escapements in winter-time, for both the French and the Swiss makers. It is interesting to note that the few watches known from this maker are all constructed with this very unusual calibre and all set with the same type of straight-line lever escapement. Very few watches made by Père Bouhelier are known to exist. Two were discussed in Horlogerie Anci
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2012-05-13
