Extremely fine Swiss rose gold complicated lever Circa 1890

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Kenmerk
BA2242
Diameter
53 mm
Estimate
€ 40.000 - 70.000
Price sold
€ 43.750

Rose gold, champlevé enamel and diamond-set complicated watch 
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An extremely fine and very rare Swiss 18 carat rose gold, champlevé enamel and diamond-set open faced minute repeating keyless lever Royal presentation pocket watch with perpetual calendar, moon phases and lunar calendar made for Umberto I, King of Italy, circa 1890. Retailed by Victor Fleury, Hger de la Marine, 23 Rue de la Paix, Paris. Matte gilt-brass movement, 25 jewels, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, repeating on gongs with two polished steel hammers, activated by a slide in the band. Gold hinged cuvette engraved with the technical details. White enamel dial with  Roman numerals, outer minute track with Arabic five-minute numerals, subsidiary dials for the seconds, date, days of the week and months with leap-year cycle, aperture for the moon phases with lunar calendar on the edge. Gold spade hands.  Polished case, the back with the champlevé enamelled diamond-set coat of arms of Umberto I, King of Italy. Cuvette signed by the retailer, case numbered.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: Louis Audemars Brassus & Genève
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This piece would appear to be the most complicated of those made by Louis Audemars for King Umberto I. These watches were commissioned by the King in order to be presented to important visitors or in recognition of loyalty.
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King Umberto I (1844-1900) was born on March 14, 1844, in Turin (Piedmont), Kingdom of Sardinia, Duke of Savoy and King of Italy. His marriage to his cousin Margherita Teresa Giovanna, Princess of Savoy, on April 22, 1868, and the birth of their son, the future Vittorio Emanuele III, on November 11, 1869, also gained him public sympathy in spite of prevailing anti-monarchist sentiment. Umberto I led his country out of its isolation and into the Triple Alliance with Austria and Germany. He supported nationalistic and imperialistic policies that led to disaster for Italy and helped create the atmosphere in which he was assassinated in Monza by an anarchist on July 29, 1900.

Signed: Louis Audemars Brassus & Genève

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