165,750 CHF
Louis Berthoud, à Paris, "Demi- Marine" No. 2532, circa 1800. Very fine and important gold dumb quarter repeating pocket chronometer with seconds indicaton and Berthoud's pivoted detent escapement. Three-body, "Consular", by Joly No. 111, called by Berthoud "double fond", polished, concealed hinge and lock-ingslide in the bezel. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track and Arabic ten-minute mark-ers,subsidiary seconds with Arabic quarter minute markers. Blued steel Breguet hands. Notes This very fine watch does not appear in Berthoud’s register although the watches with the preceding number and following number do appear. It is not unknown for Berthoud’s watches to be missing from his registers and in fact Berthoud No. 15 which does not appear in the register was bought by Breguet and sold by him as Breguet No.12. It seems to be the case that watches sold to other watchmakers either as completed watches or un-finished pieces were not noted in the registers. This is perhaps because Berthoud feared that if the watchmaker altered the piece it might reflect badly upon him at a future date. This watch is unquestionably a very fine example of Berthoud’s work and has survived in remarkably good condition. Berthoud Demi-Marine Watches Watches with detent escapements and quarter repeating were called “Demi ˆ Marine” by Berthoud. This was to distinguish them from the true marine timekeepers which were precision scientific instruments. The Demi Marine watches
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2005-05-15
