AndCavanaugh
504
The Grande Sonnerie was miniaturized 100 years before Dufour, and one can be yours for a the price of a new Submariner!
Franck Muller and Philippe Dufour both exhibited grande et petite sonnerie wrstwatches at Basel 1992.
Dufour painstakingly reverse-engineered and miniaturized a design by the Reymond bothers. The Reymonds were known for supplying rough clockwatch ebauches to Victorin Piguet, which were in turn used to make Patek Philippe, VC, and Breguet movements. Their company later became Valjoux.
Antiquorum, May 1984
Instead of making the movement himself, Franck Muller destroyed a perfectly preserved watch from 1897 with enamelwork by Pierre-Amedee Champod to scavenge the movement.
Very soon another one of these very small pocket-clock-watches (only 42.5 mm) will go under the hammer at Phillips. This one is signed by Parkinson & Frodsham, the movement is generally in the English style with diamond endstone, English lever escapement, gold bushes for the jewels etc… though with a Swiss-style tandem winding system and without an English style free-sprung balance.
The estimate is astonishingly low. If they’d had the foresight to weld lugs on when they made it, it might be a million-dollar watch today. Patek Philippe made a pair of clock wristwatches for the English market during the 1930s (198'493 and 198’497) but these were ship's bell chiming.
Hopefully, this watch is spared the fate of its sister. I will be bidding on it, but I will probably bow out after $5k.
See the lot here: https://www.phillips.com/detail/parkinson-&-frodsham/217284
The Grande Sonnerie was miniaturized 100 years before Dufour, and one can be yours for a the price of a new Submariner!
Franck Muller and Philippe Dufour both exhibited grande et petite sonnerie wrstwatches at Basel 1992. Dufour painstakingly reverse-engineered and miniaturized a design by the Reymond bothers. The Reymonds were known for supplying rough clockwatch ebauches...
There is also an English Triple Complication and German Grand Complication
The majority of German grand complicated watches were made by Union, but this one is signed Lange!
Another eye opening discussion
Of course Dufour's approach is the one to appreciate the most, but it confirms that from the last century the famous Swiss made industry didn't change much. Those old pocket watches are indeed hidden gems, I'm waiting for the Chinese manufacturers to "mas...
I'm not sure on the exact pricing, but Peacock's (alleged) minute repeaters will be hitting the market soon and will be cheaper than other Chinese repeaters
Allegedly being used in RO minute repeater "replicas" Doesn't sound amazing in videos, which is disappointing since Seagull's sound better than many Swiss repeaters.
I wish you the best for this bidding.
It seems incredible that such a complicated watch could be had for such a reasonable price (if the bidding remains reasonable of course). Best, Emmanuel
SAVE 20%.... Oh yes, and eBay had many years ago for a song. You can make a wristwatch from the pocketwatch of course.
But beware those crippling Auction add-on expenses. Best bet would be to ---> buy direct and save 20% <--- on the sale imho.
Incredible value, for sure, but the servicing costs will be extreme
I think that's the problem with many of these wonderful old pocket watches. And reminds me of this: 2009 BMW 760 valued at around $15,000. The fuel pump alone is between $13,000 and $15,000 (per the article), not to mention installation costs. A V12 BMW 7...