54,280 CHF
White Gold “Triple Date Calendar” Audemars Piguet, retailed by E. Gübelin, Lucerne, No. 27819. Made in 1924 for L. Stewart Barr, U.S.A. Very fine, important and unique, early, rectangular Art-Deco 18K white gold wristwatch with triple date, the age and the phases of the moon. Two-body, solid, polished, inclined bezel, straight lugs, the back with engraved dedication. Brushed silver with black Arabic numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary dials for the date, days of the week and the months, graduation for the age of the moon, aperture for the moon phases. Blued steel “Breguet” hands. Notes Engraved on the back of the watch: “This is the first calender (sic) wristwatch ever made by us and I believe it to be the only one in existence, E. Gübelin, Lucerne 1924, Switzerland”. Our research indicates that the inscription on the back of the watch was true for a rectangular wristwatch and may imply that the movement was the first of this type to be completed, although a cushionform watch by Audemars Piguet for Gubelin with the same functions is thought to date from 1921. However, it could be that the present watch was simply not entered in the registers until 1924. A small series of these watches in cushion-form, rectangular and tonneau-shape were made up to about 1929. See: “Audemars Piguet”, Brunner, Pfeiffer-Belli, Wehrli, 1993, p. 219-230.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2007-10-14
