74,750 HKD
Henry Moser & Cie, No. 34438, made for the Russian market, circa 1880.Very fine and rare 18K gold hunting-cased keyless double-train independent dead-seconds minute-repeating watch. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute/dead-seconds divisions, subsidiary sunk seconds. Blued steel Breguet hands. Notes Henry MoserJohann Heinrich Moser was born on December 12, 1805, in Schaffhausen. His father, Erhard Moser (1760-1829) was a clockmaker and city councilor. Johann Heinrich was the youngest in the family of 12 children. At the age of 15 he became apprenticed to his father as a clockmaker. Four years later he became a journeyman, a necessary step in those days in order to later become a free clock- or watchmaker. He went to Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle. In later years he wrote his memoirs which have survived.e claims that in his journeyman years he worked from 5 o'clock in the morning to 10 o'clock at night, mentioning that even on New Year's Eve of 1824 he worked until 11 o'clock at night and spent New Year's Day repairing his clothes. Sundays he spent on writing letters to the relatives and his friends. He returned to Schaffhausen in approximately 1826 as an experienced watchmaker. In 1827 he left for Germany, where he became a businessman. Before 1830 he moved to St. Petersburg where he opened aatch business (Nevskii prospect and Malaya Konyushennaya uliza), apparently a manufacture as well as a resale business. Soon, to meet the growing demand, he opened a Read more…
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2002-06-08
