Lot 640

Ulysse Nardin Locle, Suisse, Movement No. 19802, Case No. 392944, 64 mm, 214 g, circa 1939
A deck chronometer with 40h power reserve indicator from the inventory of the Swedish Navy
Case: sterling silver, polished, silver dome, engraving with three crownes and the number 15, hallmark "FFBA 46". Dial: enamel, radial Roman hours, auxiliary seconds, blued spade hands. Movm.: bridge movement, frosted, gilt, spring detent escapement with gold escape wheel, Guillaume gold screw compensation balance, blued balance spring, index spring fine adjusting device, ruby endstone on escape wheel, chatoned sapphire endstone on balance.
This watch is without doubt a sound example of top quality Swiss watch- and chronometer making. Judging from the identical watch no. 21605 (see Eder, "Beobachtungsuhren" illustrations 32 a+b), no. 19812 should date from about 1917. That is, however, impossible because the silver case was produced after 1934. Presumably a number of movements were left over at the end of World War I, for which there was no demand; they were put in storage and fitted into cases just before World War II, when the watches were suddenly in great demand. We assume that the watch was finished around 1939, while the movement dates from 1917. According to the Ulysse Nardin records, only 187 examples of this movement type were ever produced.
Source: Norbert Eder, "Beobachtungsuhren", 1987, p. 101

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