59,000 HKD
Silver “Lever Chronometer Deck Watch – Guillaume Balance” Patek, Philippe & Cie. , Genève, No. 182716, case No. 626022, Ref. 739. The movement made in 1914, cased in 1941, sold on March 24, 1942. Very fine and rare, keyless, silver deck lever chronometer with Guillaume balance. Accompanied by the Extract from the Archives. Four-body, "demi-bassine", solid, polished. Hinged silver cuvette. Matte silver with black champlevé Arabic numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds dial. Blued steel "spade" hands. Notes A Patek Philippe deck watch from a small series of about 35, all destined for Obervatory trials. Only one example is known in gold. Anibal (Acier au nickel pour balanciers), an alloy invented by Dr. Charles Edouard Guillaume, exhibits unusual properties, both in terms of thermal expansion and in changes in elasticity. These properties are very different from those of two other famous alloys invented by Guillaume, Invar and Elinvar. At the end of the 1800's, Guillaume attempted to eliminate the so-called Middle Temperature Error caused by the fact that the change of rate in a timekeeper with a steelbrass bimetallic balance is approximately a linear function of temperature, while the change of rate caused by change in elasticity of a balance spring is approximately a quadratic function. Thus, it equals zero at only two temperatures, causing secondary error. Countless attempts were made to eliminate Middle Temperature Error, usually by means of auxiliary com
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2003-06-02
