Masterworks of Time: Abraham Louis Breguet, Horologist Extraordinaire 「時間傑作——阿伯拉罕・路易・寶璣：鐘錶鬼才」

Masterworks of Time: Abraham Louis Breguet, Horologist Extraordinaire 「時間傑作——阿伯拉罕・路易・寶璣：鐘錶鬼才」

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 89. BREGUET [寶璣] | A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE PINK GOLD OPEN-FACED TWO-TRAIN PERPETUAL CALENDAR CHRONOGRAPH WATCH WITH JUMPING FIFTHS, RETROGRADE DATE AND MOON PHASES NO. 4420, SOLD TO MONSIEUR JEAN DOLLFUS ON 12 JULY 1922 FOR 6,500 FRANCS [極罕有粉紅金雙發條萬年曆計時懷錶備1/5 秒跳秒功能、逆跳日期及月相顯示，編號4420，1922年7月12日以6,500法郎售出].

BREGUET [寶璣] | A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE PINK GOLD OPEN-FACED TWO-TRAIN PERPETUAL CALENDAR CHRONOGRAPH WATCH WITH JUMPING FIFTHS, RETROGRADE DATE AND MOON PHASES NO. 4420, SOLD TO MONSIEUR JEAN DOLLFUS ON 12 JULY 1922 FOR 6,500 FRANCS [極罕有粉紅金雙發條萬年曆計時懷錶備1/5 秒跳秒功能、逆跳日期及月相顯示，編號4420，1922年7月12日以6,500法郎售出]

VAT applies to hammer price and buyer's premium

Lot Closed

June 16, 03:36 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 10,000 CHF

Lot Details

Description

BREGUET

[寶璣]


A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE PINK GOLD OPEN-FACED TWO-TRAIN PERPETUAL CALENDAR CHRONOGRAPH WATCH WITH JUMPING FIFTHS, RETROGRADE DATE AND MOON PHASES  

NO. 4420, SOLD TO MONSIEUR JEAN DOLLFUS ON 12 JULY 1922 FOR 6,500 FRANCS

[極罕有粉紅金雙發條萬年曆計時懷錶備1/5 秒跳秒功能、逆跳日期及月相顯示，編號4420，1922年7月12日以6,500法郎售出]


• Movement: 20''' frosted gilded, two-train with tandem keyless winding for the two barrels, lever escapement, jewelled to the centre, bi-metallic compensation balance, precision cam-form regulation, chronograph seconds and jumping 5ths activated via push button through crown

• Dial: white enamel, Roman numerals, outer Arabic minute ring, outermost track for chronograph seconds, retrograde sector for date, apertures for day and month, unusual oval aperture with fixed disc displaying a night sky with a central circular aperture revealing the moon phases, sunken subsidiary dial for jumping 5ths of a second, blued steel hands, pink gold date hand, the chronograph seconds hand with fleur-de-lys tail

• Case: 18ct pink gold polished case with rounded bezel, pusher to left side of pendant to quickly adjust day and date in tandem, olivette to the right for adjusting hands, polished hinged cuvette with milled borders and signed and numbered Breguet No. 4420, further numbered to inside of cuvette and inside case back 2913


diameter 53mm


Accompanied by a Breguet certificate dated 27 January 2020.


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Monsieur Jean Dollfus 

Antiquorum Geneva, The Art of Breguet, 14 April 1991, lot 110

An ingenious and complex piece, this watch is designed with an emphasis on visual clarity, achieved by the use of apertures rather than subsidiary dials for the day and month indications and an arc-form retrograde date indication. The chronograph’s power is provided by an independent train. A pusher through the crown starts, stops and resets both the chronograph seconds hand and the flying fifths subsidiary seconds dial.


Brothers Jean (b.1884) and Louis Dollfus (b.1901) were important patrons of Breguet who, between them, purchased a number of unusual and important complication watches from the firm during the 1920s. Jean and Louis were members of the prominent family of textile manufacturers whose company, Dollfus-Meig et Cie (D.M.C.), was originally founded in Mulhouse, France, in 1746. During the 20th century, Dollfus-Meig was one of Europe’s largest textile and industrial groups. The present piece, bought by Jean Dollfus, is one of the earliest Breguets purchased by either brother and its unusual displays perhaps piqued the pair’s enthusiasm for collecting watches by this famous maker. Their Breguet watch collection included two Tourbillons, nos.986 & 1389, sold 1926 & 1927; Pocket Chronometer no.472, sold 1924; Two-Train Chronometer Clockwatch, no.680, sold 1926; Chronoscope, no.1285, sold 1926; Platinum dress watch, no.4344, sold 1929; Split seconds chronograph, no.2170, sold 1929 and a wristwatch with perpetual calendar and moon phases, no.2516, sold 1934.