399,500 CHF
Timekeeper with 4 ComplicationsPatek, Philippe & Cie. , Genève, No. 27171, made for Thomas Randon Fisher, circa 1867.Extremely fine and probably unique, 18K gold keyless, double-train, early independent dead-seconds watch with fifth-second foudroyante and return-to-zero mechanism. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions, subsidiary sunk seconds with fifth-second "foudroyante" scale. Gold "spade" hands. Gilt brass, double-train, 26 jewels, straight line counterpoised lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, independent dead-secons mechanism, set over the going train under single bridge, ingeniously driven by a wheel set underneath the independent train center wheel, powered by a small hairspring-like spring set on the center wheel, with the jumps controlled by eight-arm star wheel released by a five-leaf pinion of the last independent train wheel. The fifth-second jumping is controlled by a separate mechanism via a "break" wheel set on the escape wheel and a flirt, regular stop mechanism by blocking the flirt, ingeniousreturn-to-zero mechanism by letting both, the independent seconds and foudroyante, drive to zero position and stopping it there.Signed on the case.Diam. 55 mm. Notes The most unusual feature of this watch is its return-to-zero mechanism, which is the only one known to date on a double-train independent seconds watch from the period. The idea of returning the center seconds hand to z
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2001-11-11
