118,000 CHF
"Grande Complication" International Watch Co. , Schaffhausen, "Grande Complication", No. 42/50, Ref. 3770. Produced in a limited edition of 50 examples in 1993. 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. Accompanied by a fitted box and certificate. Three-body, solid, polished, case back with screws, inclined bezel, curved straight lugs, screwed-down crown, sapphire crystal. White with applied yellow 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 phases of the moon. Yellow gold “bâton” hands. Cal 79091, rhodium plated, "fausses-côtes" decoration, 68jewels, 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. Property of a Japanese Gentleman Notes I.W.C. 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 comparat
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2006-11-12
