59,800 CHF
Breguet à Paris, No. 78, entered into register on September 30, 1791. Highly important 18K gold watch with very early lever escapement, jump-hour hand and unusual regulator. Accompanied by a certificate. Three-body, "Empire", polished. By master dial maker Droz, white enamel, Breguet numerals, outer minute divisions, subsidiary sunk seconds at 2 o’clock, winding aperture at 6 o’clock. Blued steel Breguet hands. 23’’’ 51.2 mm, full plate, frosted gilt, back plate smaller than the pillar one, cylindrical pillars, going barrel, straight line lever escapement, divided lift (2/3 on the pallets, 1/3 on the teeth) three-arm gilt balance, under-sprung blued steel flat balance spring, convex entry pallet, concave exit pallet, circular dropping planes with draw on the entry pallet, impulse pin on a different plane from the safety roller, bimetallic compensation curb, regulator through the side of the movement accessible from above the case band, early type of jump-hour mechanism with the canon pinion the same size as the minute wheel.Signed on the dial and the edge of the dial plate.Diam. 55 mm. Notes This is one of the earliest French watches to employ the lever escapement. Although Mudge invented the lever escapement in 1770, he kept it a secret for 12 years. In 1782 Emery made his first lever watch based on the Mudge escapement. Surviving Breguet registers confirm that the so-called "Second Series" began with 31 "perpetuelle" watches with lever escapement. However, the e
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2004-04-24
