172,500 HKD
Geneva, No. 1533. Made circa 1890. Very fine and very rare, heavy, minute repeating 18K gold hunting-cased keyless clockwatch with grande and petite sonnerie striking and two-train tandem winding. Four-body, "bassine et filets", engine turned and polished, floralcartouchewith engraved name, grande sonnerie/petite sonnerie & sonne/non sonne leversinthe bezel, glazed gold-rimmed cover, hinged gold cuvette. White enamelwith radialRoman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic five minute numerals,subsidiary seconds. GoldLouis XVI" hands. Notes Grande Sonnerie Striking in which both the hours and the quarters are struck at each quarter. Petite Sonnerie Striking in which "ting-tang" quarters are struck at the quarters, but in which the hour is only struck at the hour. What is a Minute Repeater? A minute repeating watch tells the time both visually and audibly. A slide on the side of the case, usually near the 9, will activate two hammers in the movement. These hammers strike two gongs curled within the case. First one hammer strikes a gong of lower tonality; it will count out the hours. Then both hammers will strike both gongs alternatively to count out the quarter hours after that hour, and then the second hammer alone striking a gong of higher tonality will count out the minutes after that quarter hour. The repeating mechanism was developed by Daniel Quare. In 1687, he had patented a mechanism that sounded the hours and the quarter hours. The early repeaters used bells Read more…
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2005-07-10
