Longines – Magnificent Sculptural Watch Specially made for Russia – One of fewer Than Five Pieces Made

Longines – Magnificent Sculptural Watch Specially made for Russia – One of fewer Than Five Pieces Made. Longines, Geneve, No. 2352324. Made for the Russian market in commemoration of Russia’s most illustrious naval commander Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov (1744-1817), sold to Longines' Russian agent Schwaub in 1911. A magnificent, extremely fine and equally rare, very large, minuterepeating, 14K pink gold and cast silver keyless exhibition-type watch with chronograph. Four-body, massive, the front cover with a cast and chased high-relief panel decorated with a bust of Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov surrounded by a military trophy, pink gold rim, the back cover with a cast and chased high relief panel of two warships at sea, pink gold rim, the three-dimensional band cast and chased with chimera above a leaf scroll and surmounted by mermaids, the pendant in the form of a swagged urn with anchors, pink gold pine cone winding crown and pink gold trefoil bow. Hinged silver cuvette with engine-turned border. White enamel with Breguet numerals, outer minute and fifths of a second divisions with Arabic five-minute numerals, subsidiary seconds. Blued steel Breguet hands. 19/20’’’, matte gilt, straight-line lever escapement, 31 jewels, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with overcoil, index regulator, repeating with two polished steel hammers on two gongs activated by a curved slide beneath the dial. Dial and movement signed. Cuvette signed W. Gabus. D