91st Auction
2015/5/16
Lot 244
Audemars Piguet & Co., Movement No. 120817, Case No. 62477, Cal. 17''' JSMCCRVQ, 49 mm, 96 g, circa 1972
A very fine astronomical minute repeating "Grande Complication" with perpetual calendar, moon phase, split seconds chronograph and 30 min. counter
Case: 18k gold, smooth, push back, chronograph pusher at "11", slide for repeating mechanism. Dial: silvered, applied gold indexes, auxiliary seconds, signed, three subsidiary dials for the indications of day, date and month under consideration of the leap year, cobaltblue enamelled moon phase disc with inlaid golden stars and moon, gold baton hands. Movm.: bridge movement, rhodium-plated, "fausses côtes" decoration, 8 adj., 36 jewels, very finely ground and bevelled chronograph steel parts, ratchet wheel, ground double hand tong with polished bevelling, separate ratchet wheel for split seconds chronograph, 2 hammers/2 gongs, gold screw compensation balance, index spring fine adjusting device.
"Grande Complication"
Only about 10 of these highly complicated watches were produced between 1965 and 1973.
Audemars Piguet’s finest quality
Around 1890 Audemars Piguet began offering their movements in four quality levels: "Extra", "I", "II", and "III". Highly complicated movements though were only ever created in levels "Extra" and "I". Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet personally wrote several booklets with explicit instructions on the finishing of the movements for their watchmakers. Based on these instructions, a record card would be created for every single watch where every step of the work had to be filled in and signed off by the watchmaker in charge. Upon completion of a watch it had to be presented to either Jules Audemars or Edward Piguet for final inspection. No watch was ever send to a customer without having first been approved by one of the two company owners.
Lit.: Gisbert Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, Martin K. Wehrli, "Audemars Piguet", Munich 1992, p. 48.
A very fine astronomical minute repeating "Grande Complication" with perpetual calendar, moon phase, split seconds chronograph and 30 min. counter
Case: 18k gold, smooth, push back, chronograph pusher at "11", slide for repeating mechanism. Dial: silvered, applied gold indexes, auxiliary seconds, signed, three subsidiary dials for the indications of day, date and month under consideration of the leap year, cobaltblue enamelled moon phase disc with inlaid golden stars and moon, gold baton hands. Movm.: bridge movement, rhodium-plated, "fausses côtes" decoration, 8 adj., 36 jewels, very finely ground and bevelled chronograph steel parts, ratchet wheel, ground double hand tong with polished bevelling, separate ratchet wheel for split seconds chronograph, 2 hammers/2 gongs, gold screw compensation balance, index spring fine adjusting device.
"Grande Complication"
Only about 10 of these highly complicated watches were produced between 1965 and 1973.
Audemars Piguet’s finest quality
Around 1890 Audemars Piguet began offering their movements in four quality levels: "Extra", "I", "II", and "III". Highly complicated movements though were only ever created in levels "Extra" and "I". Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet personally wrote several booklets with explicit instructions on the finishing of the movements for their watchmakers. Based on these instructions, a record card would be created for every single watch where every step of the work had to be filled in and signed off by the watchmaker in charge. Upon completion of a watch it had to be presented to either Jules Audemars or Edward Piguet for final inspection. No watch was ever send to a customer without having first been approved by one of the two company owners.
Lit.: Gisbert Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, Martin K. Wehrli, "Audemars Piguet", Munich 1992, p. 48.
Sold
estimated
80.000—100.000 €
Price realized
80.600 €