Comments:
Never Mind the Bollocks. Here's Tourbillon # 13.
Four-five years ago I embarked on a quixotic quest to inventory all the pocketwatches made by Thomas Engel, a hopelessly, hopeless whack. The fruits of my futile labor appear in my article: Never Mind the Bollocks…Here's Thomas Engel...the Ka of Breguet. Based on available literature, auctions, museums, kind strangers, dumb luck etc. my article documents (for the lack of a better word) or rather lists two-score Thomas Engel watches largely assisted by Manfred Rössler's article «Thomas Engel: Taschenuhr-Chronometer Im Stile Breguets» (Klassik Uhren October/November 2011, see enclosed).
Manfred Rössler states in his Zenith book (Damiani, 2009): "A general overview of the chronometers Prof. Engel made with Zenith movements is sadly not possible anymore. Many documents and papers were stolen during a break-in in Prof. Engel's house...it is to dread that the thieves destroyed all written papers."
Making the vexing venture all the more puzzling is Thomas Engel's often befuddling numbering system, e.g. there is Tourbillon No. 4 & Tourbillon No. IV, two Tourbillons marked No. 1 & a Regulator marked No. 1 and Regulator No. 10 (IWC movement) & Tourbillon No. X (Zenith movement).
Recently, one of the handful of readers of my Thomas Engel article was kind enough to share an auction (2022) of a Thomas Engel Tourbillon that neither appeared in Manfred Rössler's Klassick Uhren article nor my article (a mortal lapse on my part). The watch is Tourbillon # 13 (circa 1981); almost certainly Richard Daners did the tourbillon work. The auction description reads:
Seltene Tourbillon-Taschenuhr von Prof. Thomas Engel, Aesch 1981 Gelbgold und Silber, gest. 750. Rundes Uhrengehäuse, verschraubter Boden, verglaste Werkabdeckung, äußerst fein guillochiertes Regulatorzifferblatt, mit schwarzen römischen und arabischen Zahlen, gebläute Breguetzeiger, Gangreserve, kleine Sekunde. Ankerwerk mit Tourbillon, Werk Nr. 13. Herstellerzeichen. D. 56 mm. Gew. ca. 189,13 g.; Ergänzend Buch von Thomas Engel
For the curious the watch is enclosed.
I apologize for the confusion…
“hopelessly, hopeless whack” (in other words an attempt made in vain) refers to, or was meant to refer to, my “quixotic quest” not the Professor though I’ve been told Thomas Engel could be prickly as geniuses tend to be; sorry for the confusion.
WOW quitea find Where can we find your article on Engel and at what
auction was this watch sold?
Answers...
Google the title of the article Never Mind the Bollocks…Here's Thomas Engel...the Ka of Breguet and you will find the article with the caveat the article is lengthy if not often monotonous; the auction is enclosed.
Another Thomas Engel discovery (discovery used loosely)...
Really only a discovery for me as it's not the Lost Ark, Holy Grail etc. but recently I happened upon a sale (November 2021, Christie's online auction) of a Thomas Engel watch appearing neither in Manfred Rössler's article «Thomas Engel: Taschenuhr-Chronometer Im Stile Breguets» nor my Thomas Engel article, namely Concours Observatoire No. 23 circa 1982. Note generally Thomas Engel's watches are grouped as Tourbillon or Concours Observatoire, I guess there exists more-or-less a score of watches in each category but as time passes, previously undocumented-forgotten Thomas Engel watches are resurfacing (a rare Thomas Engel watch popped up last year which hopefully I will post soon). Like the majority of Thomas Engel's Concours Observatoire and Tourbillon watches, Concours Observatoire No. 23 is based on the Zenith caliber 5011.
