Extremely rare Swiss platinum complicated lever Circa 1925

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Kenmerk
BA1555
Diameter
55 mm
Estimate
€ 60.000 - 120.000
Price sold
€ 110.900

Platinum carillon watch with Westminster chimes by Edouard JeanRichard
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An extremely fine and equally rare Swiss platinum full hunter cased minute repeating keyless lever carillon watch with Westminster chimes on four gongs with four hammers, perpetual calendar and moon phases, circa 1925. Rhodium plated movement, 31 jewels, straight line lever escapement, cut bi metallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring with a terminal curve, index regulator, repeating on four gongs with four hammers activated by a slide on the band. Hinged glazed platinum rimmed cuvette for viewing the movement. Matte silver dial with black painted Breguet numerals, outer minute divisions, four subsidiary dials for days of the week, date, months, and four year leap cycle, seconds concentric with phases of the moon aperture, original black steel Breguet hands. Engine turned case with polished borders, pushers for calendar setting protruding from the bezel.
Dial signed.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Signed: Edouard JeanRichard Le Locle
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The 7 complications of the watch: date, days of the week, months, perpetual calendar, moon phases and age, chronograph and minute repeater.
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This watch is one of only two known examples with a perpetual calendar together with a four hammer and four gong Westminster chiming carillon.
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Westminster Chimes are more correctly called Cambridge Chimes. They first appeared in 1793 at St. Mary’s Church, Cambridge. They were written by Rev Dr. Joseph Jowett and Dr. John Randall working with undergraduate William Crotch (later first Principal of the Royal Academy of Music) and were adopted by Lord Grimthorpe, designer of the great clock ‘Big Ben’ for the Palace of Westminster. The chimes are based on four notes from Handel’s Messiah and are known locally in Cambridge as ‘Jowett’s Jig’.
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Edouard JeanRichard, 1867-1944, comes from a watchmaking family, Edouard JeanRichard was the son of Virgile and Adèle JeanRichard, and the brother of Achille Jean-Richard. He was born in La Sagne on October 1867 and died in Le Locle on June 30, 1944. JeanRichard founded his watchmaking firm in 1915, having previously made ebauches for other companies. He specialized in musical carillon watches with multiple gongs and can be considered the 20th century master of the carillon watch, along with Constant Piguet. JeanRichard made a carillon watch with seven gongs playing the Swiss National Anthem. The company was listed in 1923, and the following year advertised chronographs, sports timers, ring watches, jewellery watches, women’s wristwatches, flyback repeaters, and ultra thin watches. Another advertisement from the same period stated that the company made repeating carillon watches with multiple hammers playing the whole of ‘God save the King’ which was then the same tune as the Swiss National Anthem, very few of these were made. In the La Chaux-de-Fonds Musée International d’Horlogerie, there is a gold full hunter cased quarter repeating watch playing the ‘Ranz des vaches’ on six gongs. JeanRichard’s movements were used by such horological masters as Paul Ditisheim.

Signed: Edouard JeanRichard Le Locle

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