49,450 HKD
Isaac Grasset & Cie, Geneva, circa 1898. Interesting and rare silver and gold-filled keyless watch with special patented power source. Four-body, "bassine", engine-turned back, polished gold-filled bezels and band, glazed silver cuvette. White enamel, Roman numerals, outer minute divisions with five-minute Arabic figures, subsidiary sunk seconds. Gold "Louis XV" hands. Notes In the early 1880's Isaac Grasset designed an interesting alternative power source in the form of a coiled spring wound around the stem (Swiss patent No. 120, later improved in No. 5019). In 1897 he patented a stem winding and setting mechanism for the arrangement, as found in this watch (Swiss patent No. 14528). He also patented an interesting constant force escapement and applied it to his design. To date, no example of this is known.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2002-06-08
