BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//eluceo/ical//2.0/EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:008e3bb63d4eb055b669349d32ef0ace DTSTAMP:20260404T075210Z SUMMARY:an-extra-slim-very-fine-and-rare-18ct-gold-open-faced-half-quarter- repeating-demi-chronometer-lever-watch-with-date-and-jumping-hour-hand - D ate de vente : 09/11/2025 DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : An extra slim\, very fine and rare 18ct gold open -faced half-quarter-repeating demi-chronometer lever watch with date and j umping hour hand\n\n20’’’ gilded movement\, lever escapement\, bi-me tallic compensation balance with three blued steel arms and pink gold and large platinum screws\, blued steel balance spring with overcoil\, parachu te suspension\, polished steel regulating index with extension arm for dia l aperture\, repeating train with partially visible blued steel spring\, p olished steel hammer striking smaller intermediate hammer to repeat the ho urs and half-quarters on a single coiled gong\n\nsilver dial\, centre with engine-turned damier pattern\, outer edge guilloché clou de Paris\, twin satin finished chapter rings with black Roman numerals and pearled minute s\, gold Breguet hands\, the minute hand with open square to base for adju stment\, angled cartouche signed Breguet at VIII\, matching cartouche at I III with aperture for regulation\, curved aperture beneath VI for date wit h corresponding indicator\n\n18ct gold Tavernier case engine-turned à gra ins d’orge\, repeating slide to band between X and XI\, bayonet back wit h off-set aperture turning to reveal female winding square\, case back int erior numbered B 3447\, Paris assay bull to left in irregular hexagonal ca rtouche (third standard gold 750/1000\, 1819-1838) maker’s mark MAB bene ath a triangle in lozenge-shaped cartouche for Tavernier workshop\, pendan t with Paris assay head of Sardanapalus (1819-1838)\n\nMeasurements\n\ndia meter 49mm\n\ndepth 8.5mm\n\nweight 81.9g\n\nAccompaniments\n\nwith a Breg uet 250th anniversary certificate\n\n1822 M. Schickler.\n\n1825 Duc de Vil lahermosa.\n\n---\n\n1959 George Brown at Breguet.\n\nCurrent Private Coll ection purchased from the above on 24 October 1959.\n\nBreguet\, Emmanuel\ , Breguet Watchmakers since 1775\, Revised and Expanded Edition\, Swan Éd iteur\, 2016\, pp. 286-287\, fig. 335.\n\nSuch is the exceptional fineness and slimness of this watch that the certificate originally supplied with it offered reassurance to the purchaser that “despite its extreme slimne ss\, it is as reliable as the thickest garde-temps.”1 An almost identica l watch to the present example appears in Breguet’s first illustrated ca talogue\, issued around 1822. A copy of the original drawing is reproduced here (Salomons reproduces the brochure in full in his 1921 book)\; althou gh a few small differences may be observed\, these are likely attributable to artistic licence\, and the watch depicted may in fact be this very pie ce\, no. 3447. The accompanying Breguet cataloguing text\, reproduced belo w in French\, emphasises the quality of the work and places particular str ess on its remarkable thinness. It remarks that\, in reality\, the watch a ppears even slimmer than suggested by the drawing.\n\n‘Les répétitions très plates\, demi-chronomètres\, échappement libre\, balancier compen sateur\, secondes et quantième\, n° 4\, a et b. Elles paraissent beaucou p plus plates que dans le dessin. Une coulisse sur le collier remplace le poussoir de répétition. Quantième avec aiguille fixe. Avance et retard sur le cadran\, dont la lunette s’ouvre\; mais la boîte ne s’ouvre po int pour remonter : le fond tourne\, sur lui-même pour découvrir le carr é de remontoir\, comme pour le refermer. L’aiguille des heures saute d ’heure en heure cadran d’argent excentrique et boîte d’or guilloch és.’\n\n[Very flat repeating watches\, half-chronometers\, with detache d escapement\, compensating balance\, seconds and calendar\, no. 4\, a and b. They appear much thinner in reality than in the drawing. A slide on th e band replaces the usual repeater pusher. Calendar with fixed hand. Fast/ slow regulator shown on the dial\, whose bezel opens\; but the case itself does not open for winding: instead\, the back rotates on itself to reveal the winding square\, and turns back again to close. The hour hand jumps f orward precisely hour by hour. Silver eccentric dial and gold engine-turne d case.]\n\nExtract from the Breguet Catalogue circa 1822.\n\nJosé Antoni o Azlor de Aragón y Pignatelli\, Duc de Villahermosa (1785-1852)\n\nThe B reguet Archives record that this watch was purchased by the Duc de Villahe rmosa on 30 July 1825\, having previously been bought back by the firm fro m the original owner\, M. Schickler. At that date the Duke was serving as Spain’s ambassador in Paris\, where he was then residing\, and it is the refore highly fitting that he should have sought out a watch from Breguet. \n\nJosé Antonio Azlor de Aragón y Pignatelli\, Duke of Villahermosa\, w as a Spanish nobleman\, historian\, and politician. Born in Madrid\, he su pported the city’s uprising against Napoleon in 1808 and took part in th e defence of Zaragoza\, later refusing allegiance to Joseph Bonaparte - a stance that led to his imprisonment in France until the French withdrawal. He was invested as a Knight of Montesa and awarded the Order of Charles I II in 1824\, before serving in the Estamento de Próceres\, the upper cham ber of Spain’s early liberal parliaments\, and subsequently as a diploma t.\n\nIn Madrid\, his family seat was the Palacio de Villahermosa\, remode lled in neoclassical style in 1805 by Antonio López Aguado. In the late 2 0th century this palace was transformed into the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bo rnemisza\, now one of Spain’s foremost art institutions. Before his deat h in 1852\, the Duke also held the titles of Count-Duke de Luna and Count de Guara.2\n\n1 Breguet\, Emmanuel\, Breguet Watchmakers since 1775\, Revi sed and Expanded Edition\, Swan Éditeur\, 2016\, p. 287.\n\n2 Hopkings\, J & Hargreaves\, M.\, The Papers of Henry Clay\, Vol. 5\, University of Ke ntucky\, 1973\, p. 1081. DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251109 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR