Important Watches
Important Watches
Property from an Erudite Collector
Henry Capt, Genève
A very fine 18ct yellow gold hunting cased perpetual calendar minute-repeating watch with moon phases, Circa 1890
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
· damascened Côtes de Genève decoration, lever escapement, jewelled to the centre, bi-metallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet hairspring, two polished steel hammers repeating on two coiled gongs, signed and numbered Henry Capt No. 34633 and with spread eagle HC trademark
· white enamel dial signed Henry Capt Genève, Roman numerals, outer minute ring with Arabic 5-minute markers, subsidiary dials for day, date and seconds combined with months and leap year indication, the calibrations abbreviated in French, aperture for moon age and phases at 12 o’clock
· 18ct gold engine-turned case, front cover with monogram in translucent red, blue and opaque white enamel, sunken repeating slide, olivette for hand setting with protective shoulders, polished gold cuvette signed Henry Capt Genève No. 34633 and engraved with movement details, inside back cover with spread eagle HC trademark, P&P punch mark, cuvette and case back numbered 34633, front cover numbered 33
No. 34633
diameter 53mm
Sotheby’s Geneva, 20 May 1997, lot 261.
Of exceptional quality, this complication watch by Henry Capt is typical of the maker’s finest work and has an impeccably finished movement with Geneva striped bridgework. In addition to the Capt signatures, both the movement and the case feature the firm’s trademark spread eagle HC punch mark which was registered in 1880.
The watchmaking firm of Henri (or Henry) Capt was originally founded by Henri-Daniel Capt who was born in 1773 at Le Chenit in Switzerland. A highly skilled and influential watchmaker, in addition to repeaters, Capt specialized in creating watches and boxes that incorporated music and automata. He is credited with being the first to manufacture steel teeth capable of playing all notes of the musical scale. From 1802 to 1811, Capt partnered with Isaac-Daniel Piguet under the business name Piguet & Capt. When Piguet left the partnership in 1811 to collaborate with Philippe Meylan, Capt continued on his own until 1830, when he entered a new partnership with Aubert, forming the firm Aubert & Capt. From 1844, the company was run by Henri Capt’s son, also called Henri, and the firm was re-named Henri Capt & Cie. In 1911, Henri Capt & Cie was purchased by Gallopin, subsequently becoming H. Capt Horloger, Maison Gallopin Successeurs.
One of the finest watchmaking firms of the 19th century, Henri Capt was a regular competitor at the major chronometer trials and received numerous awards. In the 1882 Geneva Observatory trials, a Henri Capt watch with palladium balance spring was awarded First Prize, coming top in the Class ‘A’ trials. During its 40-day test period, the watch’s mean daily rate of variation was just 0.21 seconds. In the same year, a further two of Henri Capt’s watches placed in the top 25 positions of the trials (in total 208 watches were entered to the trials by a wide range of watchmakers). In 1887, Capt became the first Swiss watchmaker to enter a watch to the Kew Observatory trials in England, submitting a repeating watch for the contest.