38,940 CHF
"Watch with 8 Complications" Attributed to Louis Audemars, Swiss, No. 2296, retailed by Marcks & Co., Bombay & Poona. Made for the Indian market, circa 1870. Very fine and very rare, minute-repeating, keyless, 18K gold pocket watch with triple-date calendar, moon phases and age, Reaumur thermometer and center-seconds with Audemars-type "rattrapante" chronograph hand with mechanism under the dial and without return-to-zero function. Accompanied by a fitted box. Notes This watch is undoubtedly a product of the Louis Audemars workshops, the type of center-seconds with rattrapante chronograph mechanism fitted beneath the dial was developed by Audemars. The rattrapante hand is stopped by the first pressure on the push-piece and then rejoins the center-seconds hand with the second pressure; a zero positioning of the hand is not possible. The small depression in the repeat slide, the dial and movement design, exposed hand-setting button, and the use of the Reaumur thermometer, are all classic Louis Audemars features. Literature: A watch with exactly the same chronograph and center-seconds mechanism, presented at the 1862 London International Exhibition, is illustrated and described in "Louis-Benjamin Audemars, His Life and Work" by Hartmut Zantke, 2003, p. 241. Marcks & Co., Bombay & Poona. Was the most prestigious luxury goods store in India. The company specialized in "Grande Complication" watches, watches with perpetual calendar, independent seconds with diabloti Read more…
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2007-11-11
