98th Auction
2018/11/10
Lot 543
Sylvain Mairet Le Locle (attributed to), Case No. 20767, 46 mm, 55 g, circa 1870
A silver pocket watch with regulator dial and temperature indicator in "Réaumur"
Case: silver, inner lid with presentation engraving. Dial: enamel. Movm.: bridge movement, screw compensation balance.
Pocket watches with thermometer have been around since the 18th century and most of the big brands have included this complication in their range: Leroy et Fils and Emery, Breguet and Jürgensen as well as Roy and Patek Philippe - every one of them has created watches with glass or metal thermometers at one point. The design of the cases and dials was correspondingly divers. Fritz von Osterhausen describes the dial of this timepiece:
Chronometer maker Sylvain Mairet (1805 - 1890) is thought to have found a particularly elegant design for a dial with thermometer around 1840. In any case, this design is attributed to Mairet, even if no example with his signature is available. It is a regulator dial like those by Jürgensen/Houriet with individual dials for hours and for minutes in the centre, subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock and a large semicircular temperature scale extending from one side to the other around 12 o‘clock. The elegance of the watch face is emphasised by a very fine and narrow bezel. Several Swiss makers have adopted this sophisticated design for their own dials, such as Robert Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds or Laederich Frères in St. Imier. (Temperaturfühler für die Tasche, Klassik Uhren, 6 / 2004, p. 12ff).
The "Réaumur" scale is a temperature scale proposed by French natural scientist René- Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur in 1730, where the freezing and boiling points of water are set at 0 and 80 degrees respectively.
Provenance: Landrock Collection
A silver pocket watch with regulator dial and temperature indicator in "Réaumur"
Case: silver, inner lid with presentation engraving. Dial: enamel. Movm.: bridge movement, screw compensation balance.
Pocket watches with thermometer have been around since the 18th century and most of the big brands have included this complication in their range: Leroy et Fils and Emery, Breguet and Jürgensen as well as Roy and Patek Philippe - every one of them has created watches with glass or metal thermometers at one point. The design of the cases and dials was correspondingly divers. Fritz von Osterhausen describes the dial of this timepiece:
Chronometer maker Sylvain Mairet (1805 - 1890) is thought to have found a particularly elegant design for a dial with thermometer around 1840. In any case, this design is attributed to Mairet, even if no example with his signature is available. It is a regulator dial like those by Jürgensen/Houriet with individual dials for hours and for minutes in the centre, subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock and a large semicircular temperature scale extending from one side to the other around 12 o‘clock. The elegance of the watch face is emphasised by a very fine and narrow bezel. Several Swiss makers have adopted this sophisticated design for their own dials, such as Robert Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds or Laederich Frères in St. Imier. (Temperaturfühler für die Tasche, Klassik Uhren, 6 / 2004, p. 12ff).
The "Réaumur" scale is a temperature scale proposed by French natural scientist René- Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur in 1730, where the freezing and boiling points of water are set at 0 and 80 degrees respectively.
Provenance: Landrock Collection
Sold
estimated
1.000—5.000 €
Price realized
800 €