391,000 HKD
Paul Buhre, movement No. 5079 made by Eduard Jean Richard, Le Locle. With British import marks for 1925. Very fine and very rare 18K gold hunting-cased keyless minute-repeating carillon keyless pocket watch with Westminster chimes. Four-body, "bassine" polished, gold hinged cuvette. White enamel,Breguet numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds.Blued steel "spade" hands. 45 mm. (20’’’), gilt brass, 32 jewels,straight line calibrated lever escapement, cut bimetalliccompensation balance with blued steel Breguet balance spring, indexregulator, repeating on four gongs with four hammers activatedby a slide in the band.Signed on the dial.Diam. 54.5 mm. Notes Carillon minute repeating watches are very rare; only a few are known with Westminster chimes. Eduard Jean Richard specialized in musical watches. He made a carillon watch with seven gongs playing the Swiss National Anthem. He founded his own retail company in 1915. Before that he specialized in ebauches made for other companies. In the 1920s, in addition to regular watches, the company advertized carillon watches, playing, among other tunes, "God save the King". A very similar watch was sold by Antiquorum, Exceptional Horological Works of Art, Geneva, October 19, 2002, Lot 8.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2005-07-10
