12,650 CHF
Henry Collomby à Huninguen, circa 1790. Fine and rare early silver balance-spring set watch without fusee, with dates and alarm. Double body, bassine, pierced and engraved with inhabited foliage. Silver champleve with Roman numerals, outer Arabic chapter for the dates and inner gilt brass Arabic revolving alarm setting disc. Blued steel single hand and pointer. Hinged gilt brass full plate with turned urn pillars, pierced and engraved fixed barrels for both the going and the alarl trains, verge escapement with plain steel three arm balance, short flat balance spring, gilt brass continental cock. Alarm striking on a bell. Signed on the back plate. In good condition. Diam. 47 mm. Notes Following the invention of the balance spring, certain watchmakers, notably in Rouen, thought they could avoid the expensive fusee, using a simple going barrel or afixed barrel with going arbor. It appears that such a technology even reched the village of Huninguen, near Basel.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
1993-04-25