60,000 CHF
Platinum Split-Seconds – The First at Auction Cartier, Paris, No. 9457/ 5830. Made circa 1922. Very fine and extremely rare, platinum dress watch with split-seconds chronograph and progressive 30-minute register, one of only two known examples of this model in platinum. Accompanied by a Cartier box. Three-body, polished, curved inclined bezel, coin-edge band, reeded bow, button between 10 and 11 for the splitseconds, button in the crown for start/stop of the chronograph. Matte silver with champleve dauphine numerals, outer minute track with Arabic five-minute numerals, outermost fifths of a second divisions, subsidiary dials for the seconds and the progressive 30-minute register. Blued steel Breguet hands. 18’’’, frosted gilt, 23 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with overcoil, index regulator, visible steel chronograph work. Dial signed, case numbered. Diam. 49 mm. Notes The present watch would appear to be the first platinum split-seconds chronograph pocket watch by Cartier without additional complication to be offered at auction and one of only two examples known to date. The other is illustrated in: Le Temps de Cartier, Barracca, Negretti & Nencini, 1989, p. 326. Split-seconds dress watches by Cartier are extremely rare and were made in very small numbers in the early 1920's. The movements were made either by the European Watch & Clock Co. or by Audemars Piguet, who also made another much
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2009-11-14
