46,000 CHF
Unsigned, attributed to Pierre Simon Gounouilhou, Geneva, circa 1820. Very fine and extremely rare, 18K gold, diamond-set quarter-hour repeating ring watch with special escape-ment and visible diamond-set balance. Rectangular top with canted corners. Bezel chiseled and engraved with laurel-leaf wreath, beaded edge, band lightly engraved with repeated pattern, bottom with sliding panel revealing winding and setting apertures. Following the shape of the case, translucent dark blue enamel, top with aperture for diamond-set spinning balance, lower part with white enamel Breguet chapter with outer minute track. Blued steel "arrowhead" hands. 14 x 26.2 mm. (6 x 12’’’), rectangular with canted corners, virgule escapement, brass escape wheel, plain diamond-set balance with four spiral arms, flat balance spring, fixed barrel, quarter-hour repeater mounted on the back plate, all-or-nothing mechanism, activated by a slide at the edge of the ring, striking on a bell mounted over the escapement. Dim. Length 32 mm., width 21 mm. Notes For a note concerning ring watches, see previous lot. Gounouilhou can be counted among the handful of ingenious precision mechanics, who at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th, created Geneva’s reputation as the center of small mechanical marvels such as this lot. The watch is described and illustrated in "Magic, Music and Motion, An Exhibition organized by Asprey", New York, 1998, No. 4. Pierre Simon Gounouilhou (1779-1847) was bo
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2002-10-19
