89,680 CHF
“Pocket Chronometer” Winnerl, No. 93. Made circa 1840. Extremely fine and very rare, 18K gold, 36-hour going, pocket chronometer with power reserve sector. Four-body, “forme quatre baguettes”, (Mastermark L.S.), No. 785, polished, reeded band. Gold hinged cuvette. White enamel, radial Roman numerals, outer minute track, large subsidiary seconds at 6, power reserve sector below 12 calibrated from 0 - 36. Blued steel Breguet hands. Notes This very fine and aesthetically pleasing chronometer was made when Winnerl was at the height of his career, having received a gold medal for his chronometers at the 1839 exhibition. His mechanism for a flyback chronograph with concentric hands invented in 1838 was perfected in 1840. It is interesting that the present watch can be dated accurately to 1840, the mainspring is signed and dated and the case bears a mark that was used as of July 1840. Breguet, for whom Winnerl worked in Paris around 1830, was the first watchmaker known to have used platinum in his watches. The present watch has platinum weights and screws on the balance. These were used because the specific gravity of platinum afforded greater inertia than other metals. Joseph-Tadeus Winnerl. Was born at Murech (Austrian Styria) on 25 January 1799. He left his country when very young to visit the principal cities of Europe in which clockmaking was practiced. Thus he worked for Kessels in Altona, and Jürgensen in Copenhagen. He arrived in Paris in 1829, where he was employed b
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2006-04-02
