A slim and elegant 18ct white gold open-faced keyless lever jump hour dress watch with presentation case and white gold chain
Breguet No. 1810 | Made in 1928 and sold to M. Gutierrez de Zubiaure on 5 June 1970 for Fr. 4,160
Estimate
10,000 - 20,000 CHF
Lot Details
Description
17''' damascened movement, lever escapement, 19 jewels, bi-metallic compensation balance, blued steel hairspring with Breguet overcoil, 8 adjustments, jump hour mechanism concealed beneath the dial, signed Breguet 1810, France
silvered dial with matt grained finish, high sheen guilloché arrow on rotating dial centre with tapered aperture for jumping hours, fixed outer minute ring with Arabic 5-minute numerals, engraved to edge between 55 & 5: Breguet No. 1810, base of ring stamped Breveté France S.G.D.G.
18ct slim white gold case, satin finished back and front bezel, polished rear bezel, French eagle’s head assay to centre of outside case back and bow, inside case back with maker’s mark B beneath a hairspring in lozenge cartouche for Breguet, numbered 126394 & stamped 18k
Measurements
diameter 44mm
case depth 6.1mm
length of chain 390mm
weight excluding chain 48.6g
weight of chain 12.5g
Accompaniments
accompanied by a fine white gold chain with French eagle’s head assay to jump link by pendant clip, and to clips at either end, green morocco leather presentation case with green velvet lined fitted interior with hidden stand for display, silk lining to lid signed Breguet 28, Place Vendome, Paris. and a Breguet 250th anniversary certificate
One of the most dramatic Art Deco twists on telling time was the production of the jump hour watch. Watches with dials displaying the time through apertures had been made for more than three centuries, yet the revival of this style of time-telling during the 1920s seemed to embody the very ethos of the period, with its confident modernity.
Breguet’s novel wandering jump hour watch is one of the most captivating of the era and is particularly delightful to see in action. Patented in France, it was also granted British Patent no. 265,421, filed on 9 April 1926. The patent was registered to George Brown, who was at that time the owner of Breguet. Similarities exist between this mechanism and one patented by Robert Cart in Switzerland in 1929, and it is believed that Brown and Cart either collaborated on the design together, or that Cart was commissioned by Brown/Breguet to create it. Robert Cart 1871-1964 founded Robert Cart SA. in Le Locle in 1920 with the objective of making complicated movements. At the Basel Fair of April 1932, Robert Cart SA was noted for their specialism in pocket chronographs incorporating repeating work and ‘calendar watches where the time is shown in a little opening on the dial.’1
The patented design features two concentric dials: a fixed outer ring marked with minutes, and a rotating inner disc that completes one revolution every hour. This inner disc displays the hour through a dedicated aperture positioned near the tip of a broad, arrow-shaped motif. As the disc rotates, the point of the arrow simultaneously indicates the minutes on the outer track, creating a dynamic and intuitive display.
At the heart of the display module is a compact jumping mechanism powered by a “ressort sautoir”—literally a “jumping spring”. To prevent the hour disc continually advancing with the running of the movement, a notched wheel periodically engages a fixed stop. This builds tension in the sautoir spring, which is then released at the precise moment the hour is due to change, propelling the disc forward with a sharp, instantaneous jump.
For a note on Leopoldo Gutierrez de Zubiaurre, see lot 47.
1 The Watch and Clock Maker Journal, The Swiss Watch Pavilion at the Swiss Samples Fair, Basle, April 2nd-12th, 1932, No. 50, Vol. V, 15 April 1932, p. 46.