23,000 CHF
Charles Oudin à Paris, circa 1830. Fine and very rare small marine chronometer with a highly unusual escapement. Double body mahogany box with slide on the lid over the observation aperture. Brass gimbals with a lead-weighted bowl. Frosted silvered, regulator type with small eccentric Roman chapter for hours, symmetrical subsidiary seconds below and outer Arabic minute ring on the border of the bezel. Blued-steel Breguet hands. Frosted and gilt brass full plate with steel conical pillars secured by nuts with washers in the manner of Louis Berthoud, the fusee with maintaining power, resting-wheel verge escapement with steel crown wheel and steel pallets on the balance staff, two-arm compensation balance with poising and timing screws, free-sprung blued-steel helical balance spring. Signed on the dial. In very good condition. Dial diam. 66 mm. Dim. of the box 13,5 x 13,5 cm. Notes The caliber chosen for the movement of this chronometer, like the quality of execution may be compared with those of Louis Brethoud. The escapement is similar to those used by Breguet for some of his watches for civil purposes in which the verge nonethless had ruby pallets One may well ask why Oudin should have fitted a chronometer with a frictional-rest escapement. Probably this was an experimental piece, intended for the study of the escapement so as to compare it with the going of chronometers with free escapements. This escapement is described and illustrated by George Daniels in The Art of
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
1993-11-14
