132,250 CHF
Ulysse Nardin, Locle, Suisse, No. 122113, case No. 610587, carriage by James @C. Pellaton, April 1942. Very fine and important, 18K gold, keyless pocket chronometer with one-minute tourbillon. White enamel with radial Roman numerals and sunk subsidiary seconds. Blued steel Breguet hands. Notes Ulysse Nardin 1823-1876. First trained by his father, Léonard-Frédéric, he was apprenticed to William Dubois, one of the leading precision watchmakers of his day. It was in 1846 that Ulysse Nardin founded the famous watch manufacture at Le Locle, in the Canton of Neuchatel. The first watches made were exported to Central and South America through a Paris go-between, Lucien Dubois, who was Nardin's only customer for two years. But, by 1852 watches were exported directly to Argentina, without any European intermediary. In 1860 Ulysse acquired a high precision astronomical regulator to rate his pocket chronometers. This is the well-known regulator made by Jacques-Frédéric Houriet in about 1768 and which the Ulysse Nardin company used continually. In 1905 its grid-iron pendulum was replaced by one made of Invar and it is today kept in the "Château des Monts", Le Locle. 1860 saw the first exports to the U. S. A. and the maker's reputation was carried far and wide. In 1861 the company began taking part in chronometry trials, held annually by the Observatory of Neuchatel. In 1862, at the London International Exhibition, the company received the highest possible award, "The Prize Med
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-11-14
