90th Auction

2014/11/15

Lot 85

Chronometer Movado "Chronométre de Bord", Movement No. 355008, Cal. 355, 80 mm, Height 31 mm, circa 1928
An important observatory chronometer with 56h power reserve display, 1927 pilot series
This watch was created specially for observatory tests and is one of the most precise mechanical watches ever produced; it achieved a score of 96 at the Kew/Teddington observatory and an award as the best watch tested in 1928. With chronometer certificates from the database of Andreas Hidding.
Case: nickel, screw back with glazed aperture, in gimbaled desk stand fitted with a mirror to view the balance through a glazed aperture. Dial: silvered, Arabic numerals, auxiliary seconds, blued Breguet hands. Movm.: 3/4 plate movement, 65 mm, frosted, gilt, engraving: "Class A Kew Certificate Especially Good", 10 adj., 21 jewels, polished screws, set rubys for seconds- and small plate- and centre wheel pins, scerewed on escapement plate with escape wheel and lever with ruby endstones, large Guillaume gold screw balance, blued balance spring with 2 terminal curves by Phillips, facetted diamond endstone.
The caliber was developed in 1927 and was devised solely for observatory contests. The construction’s most striking feature is - together with the very large size of the movement (65 mm!) - that the most elaborately executed escapement mechanism was designed as a separate and detachable unit. This means that handling during fine regulation is improved considerably and that the components can be exchanged.
48 examples of this movement type were producted; the first series of 9 watches was produced in 1927 (No. 355001-355009), the second series from 1929 on consisted of 39 watches (No. 360481-360519).
The movement is one of 48 pieces of a particular series; between 1927 and 1939, MOVADO entered 36 of them with great success in the annual Neuchâtel observatory contests for pocket and marine chronometers. Some of the watches were also submitted for testing in the chronometer trials at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.
For the tests this watch was first regulated in 1927 in Neuchâtel, then in 1928 again in Neuchâtel and in Teddington by two legendary regleurs, Edmund Ditesheim and Louis Augsburger. In 1927 the watch won 10th place out of 89 tested chronometers in Neuchâtel; in 1928 it won 8th place out of 77 tested chronometers in the category "Chronomètres de Bord".
(Detailed documentation such as the publication of the test results is available).
Extensively described in "Movado" p. 99, and "Chronometrophilia" p. 60.

Sold

estimated
7.00012.000 €
Price realized
6.800 €