Lot 510

Aubert Frères à Brassus, Case No. 21795, 55 mm, 155 g, circa 1890
A very fine, heavy minute repeating hunting case pocket watch delivered to Tiffany & Co., New York and sold to George Augustus Wilcox
Case: 18k gold, polished, engraved monogram "GAW", à goutte, gold dome with presentation engraving: "Geo. A. Wilcox, Detroit", slide for repeating mechanism. Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, auxiliary seconds, blued spade hands. Movm.: bridge movement, German silver, "fausses côtes" decoration, 31 jewels, 2 hammers / 2 gongs, wolfteeth winding wheels, gold screw compensation balance, counterpoised lever.
Aubert Frères, along with Piguet Frères and Louis-Elisèe Piguet, was a leading maker of complicated movements for such companies as Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Jules Jürgensen, and others. Without them the big companies would never have been able to achieve the fame they have. A rough blanc of this movement is illustrated in Montres et horlogers exceptionnels by Daniel Aubert, p. 83.
The case is built in such a way that closing the lid automatically disengages the lever-set mechanism in case one forgot to turn it back.
The end-user of the watch, George A. Wilcox (1830-1928), Yale graduate, was a well-known attorney.

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