90th Auction

2014/11/15

Lot 515

Golay-Leresche & fils à Genève, Movement No. 5335, Case No. 5335, Cal. SMV, 48 mm, 84 g, circa 1894
A gentleman's very fine 1st quality Geneva minute repeating pocket watch with chronograph - sold to American railroad pioneer, Jno. B. Parsons
Case: 18k gold, inlaid enamel monogram, polished, à goutte, signed gold dome, chronograph pusher via pendant, slide for repeating mechanism. Dial: enamel, Arabic numerals, auxiliary seconds, 30 min. counter, gold spade hands. Movm.: bridge movement, ébauche: Louis Elysée Piguet, rhodium-plated, "fausses côtes" decoration, very finely ground and bevelled chronograph steel parts, ratchet wheel, 2 hammers / 2 gongs, adjusted, 34 Jewels, wolfteeth winding wheels, gold screw compensation balance, index spring fine adjusting device, counterpoised lever.
Audemars Piguets book of the companys history shows a watch with the same caliber sold a year earlier to Breguet (Brunner, Pfeiffer-Belli, Wehrli,"Audemars Piguet", 1993, p. 109).
The major difference between the two is that the one for Breguet was 3rd quality while this one is the 1st quality and with a chronograph.
In 1894, when the watch was made, the company produced only 240 watches.
The watch employs, characteristic for the best early Audemars Piguet chronographs, a register mechanism which is run from the motion train (hands are fixed to it). It lowers the resistance considerably, but requires precision finish.

Sold

estimated
7.5009.500 €
Price realized
15.200 €