$77,880
"Grande Complication" International Watch Co. , Schaffhausen, "Grande Complication", No. 16/50, Ref. 3770. Made in a limited edition of 50 examples in 1991. Very fine and extremely rare, oversized, astronomic, minute-repeating, self-winding, platinum gentleman’s wristwatch with square button chronograph, registers, secular perpetual calendar, moon phases and a platinum IWC buckle. Property of an European Collector Three-body, solid, polished, case back with 6 screws, inclined bezel, curved straight lugs, screwed-down crown, sapphire crystal. White with applied yellow baton gold indexes, subsidiary dials for the seconds, the 12-hour and 30-minute registers, the date, days of the week, and the months, apertures for the four-digit year and the moon phases. Yellow gold “baton” hands. Cal 79091, rhodiumplated, "fausses côtes" decoration, 68 jewels, straight line lever escapement, monometallic balance, shock absorber, self-compensating flat balance spring, repeating on gongs by activating slide on the band. Dial, case and movement signed. Diam. 42 mm. Thickness 16 mm. Notes Schaffhausen In the 1870s, American-born Florentine Ariosto Jones, who had been appointed director of the E. Howard & Co. watchmaking factory in Boston at the early age of 27, decided to manufacture high-quality movements and watch parts for the American market using American technology and skilled labor from Switzerland, where wages were comparatively low. However, the skilled workers in the Geneva r
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2006-12-07
