BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//eluceo/ical//2.0/EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:51e284de52ab3b9492d24a3c693cf96b DTSTAMP:20260404T063013Z SUMMARY:a-large-18ct-gold-open-faced-souscription-watch - Date de vente : 0 9/11/2025 DESCRIPTION:Nom du lots : A large 18ct gold open-faced Souscription watch\n \ngilded Souscription calibre\, large central going barrel\, ruby cylinder escapement\, plain three-arm balance with parachute suspension\, flat spi ral steel balance spring\, bi-metallic compensation curb\, blued steel ind ex regulator\, signed Breguet No. 3185\n\nwhite enamel dial\, Breguet nume rals\, secret signature ‘Breguet No. 3185’ beneath 12\, outer minute r ing\, single blued steel Breguet hand\, dial securing screw above 6 o’cl ock\, further signed Breguet et Fils beneath 6 o’clock\n\n18ct gold Joly case\, the back with unusual concentric engine-turned crémaillère rings \, milled case sides with raised polished central band\, case back interio r numbered 3185 B and 2184 *\, case maker’s stamp J L J beneath a bird i n lozenge-shaped cartouche for Joly\, Paris assay and discharge marks comp rising cockerel 3 with right leg raised and head turned right in irregular hexagon cartouche (3rd standard gold 750/1000\, 1809-1819)\, bear’s hea d 3 facing left in circular cartouche (750/1000)\, lion’s head excise ma rk facing right in circular frame (1809-1819)\n\nMeasurements\n\ndiameter 62mm\n\ncase depth 14mm\n\nweight 143g\n\nAccompaniments\n\nwith a later a ssociated velvet lined fitted box with compartment for large ratchet key w ith hexagonal head and a Breguet 250th anniversary certificate\n\nDuc de F rias\, 1818\n\nRev. Bentinck Hawkins\n\nChristie’s London\, 6 February 1 895\, lot 37 sold to Roberts for £12.150.\n\nLouis Desoutter\, London 190 9 – the Breguet Archives note the firm supplied certificate no. 2539 for the present watch to Desoutter on 26 November 1909.\n\nCharles Kalish\, N ew York.\n\nSotheby & Co. London\, An Important Collection of Watches and Clocks\, The Property of Charles Kalish Esq. of New York\, 13 July 1964\, lot 84 sold for £750 ($2\,100) to Mrs Oakes.\n\nPurchased from the above. \n\nBritten\, F. J.\, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers\, London: E. & F. N. Spon\, Seventh Edition\, 1956\, p. 169.\n\nBritten\, F. J.\, Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers\, London: Bloomsbury\, Ninth Edition\, 1982\, p. 183\, plate 124.\n\nThe case back has a most unusual and distin ctive engine-turned pattern of concentric circles\, echoing the crémaill ère borders often found around the chapter rings of Breguet’s dials. Th is case design is extremely rare\, with perhaps as few as nine identified among Breguet’s recorded works.1 Most were produced with gold dials\, ma king the present example with its white enamel dial especially rare.\n\nFo r further examples of this case decoration\, see: Breguet no. 2053 illustr ated in Breguet in the Hermitage p. 20\, Breguet Art and Innovation\, p. 5 4-55 and Breguet Watchmakers since 1775 p. 218\n\nBernardino Fernández de Velasco\, 14th Duke of Frías (1783–1851)\n\nA senior figure in 19th-ce ntury Spanish nobility\, Bernardino Fernández de Velasco y Benavides\, 14 th Duke of Frías\, was born in Madrid in 1783 and inherited the dukedom i n 1811\, which he held until his death in 1851. As head of the House of Ve lasco\, he carried one of Spain’s oldest hereditary titles\, which also conferred the traditional distinction of Constable of Castile\, a title hi storically associated with military leadership and courtly precedence.\n\n The Duke’s political career reflected the shifting currents of post-Napo leonic Spain: he held high office as a diplomat\, senator\, and even brief ly as Prime Minister of Spain in 1838\, serving under Queen Isabella II.\n \nThe Duc de Frias also purchased Breguet No. 3234\, a ruby cylinder sousc ription watch\, on 23 June 1819 for Fr. 920 (see: Sotheby & Co.\, 22 April 1965\, lot 161) and No. 3066\, a first class half-quarter repeating watch with moon phases (see: An Apogee of European Watchmaking\, Breguet/Louvre \, 2009\, p.98).\n\nBreguet’s Souscription Watches\n\nFollowing his retu rn to Paris from exile in Switzerland in 1795\, Abraham-Louis Breguet face d the considerable task of rebuilding his business. He recovered his home and workshop at Quai de l’Horloge in Paris\, confiscated during the Revo lution\, in 1796. In this critical period of re-establishment\, Breguet in troduced what would become one of his most commercially important innovati ons: the Montre à Souscription\, or Subscription watch.\n\nLaunched forma lly in 1797\, the Souscription watch was conceived as a robust\, high-qual ity timepiece of simplified construction\, sold at a moderate price. Bregu et described it in a brochure issued that same year as a watch ‘sufficie ntly perfect to rank immediately behind astronomical and marine timekeeper s\, but available to the public at a moderate price.’2 Designed for reli ability and ease of repair\, the watch featured a large\, single-handed en amel dial and a movement architecture centred on a powerful mainspring des igned to run for 36 hours. The large dial with clear calibrations ensured that time could be easily read to the nearest five minutes. Breguet also s tated in the brochure that each dial would bear ‘a special mark… made by a machine whose effects are extremely difficult to imitate’\,3 a clea r reference to his secret signature. The large central barrel was engineer ed to draw power only from the central portion of the mainspring—avoidin g the extremes of tension when fully wound or nearly unwound—thereby del ivering a more even and consistent force over its running period. Breguet further noted that the connection between the balance and the gear train w ould be entirely in steel\, acting on ruby bearings\, and that the escapem ent would be protected against shocks\, even in the event of a fall.4\n\nT he economic model Breguet proposed for its manufacture was equally innovat ive. Recognising the difficulty of raising capital through borrowing\, ‘ which no honest industry\, in the current circumstances\, could sustain’ \, Breguet chose to fund the project through advance subscriptions. ‘A c ertain number of watches must be made at once to give their execution the uniformity and perfection I seek... the subscriber who pays a portion in a dvance will find compensation in the moderation of the purchase price.’5 Clients paid one quarter of the 600-livre price up front\, with delivery guaranteed in sequence of subscription.6\n\nAs Emmanuel Breguet notes\, th e money collected in advance enabled Breguet to procure components for wha t was effectively a form of early series production.7 The concept had been forming since at least 1792\, when Breguet sold a ’simple watch with on e hand’ to Talleyrand\, but the Souscription model was the first systema tic and commercially scaled iteration.8\n\nGeorge Daniels emphasised the m echanical consistency that emerged from this series: though early experime ntal pieces varied in escapement type\, later examples showed clear unifor mity in their central-barrel movement design\, regulated by Breguet’s ru by-cylinder escapement.9 Cases were typically engine-turned silver with go ld bezels\, gold cased examples were also made\; dials were almost always in enamel\, fitted with Breguet’s friction-set single hand\, and discret ely signed under the 12 with his secret signature.\n\nFollowing the public ation of Breguet’s 1797 brochure\, the Souscription watch was an immedia te success. Of the 105 watches sold in 1798\, forty were Souscription mode ls.10 The advance payments made to purchase them significantly helped the firm re-establish its presence following Abraham-Louis’s return to Paris \, and Souscription watches remained a popular and important part of Bregu et’s production well into the 19th century.\n\n1 Keith Orford\, A Watch with Breguet’s Échappement Naturel\, Antiquarian Horology\, vol. 32\, N o. 1\, March 2010\, p. 55.\n\n2 Breguet\, printed brochure for the Souscri ption watch\, 1797. Original: "J’ai pensé que le Public accueilleroit f avorablement des montres assez parfaites pour tenir le premier rang\, apr ès les machines servant à l’Astronomie et à la Marine\, lorsqu’il p ourroit les avoir à un prix modéré."\n\n3 Ibid. Original: “je mettrai sur le cadran une marque particulière\, exécutée par une machine dont les effets sont très-difficiles à imiter.”\n\n4 Ibid. Original: "Elles se distinguent par leur simplicité et par une disposition qui garantit l ’échappement des accidens les plus graves\, même en cas de chûtes."\n \n5 Ibid. Original: "Le moyen de se les procurer\, par un emprunt\, oblige de supporter un intérêt énorme\, que dans l’état actuel des choses\ , aucune industrie honnête ne peut couvrir."\n\n6 Ibid. Original: "Il fau t pouvoir faire un certain nombre de montres à-la-fois\, pour donner à l eur exécution toute l’uniformité et la perfection que je desire... le souscripteur qui payeroit une partie d’avance\, trouveroit son indemnit é dans la modération du prix d’acquisition."\n\n7 Emmanuel Breguet\, B reguet: Watchmakers Since 1775\, Revised and Expanded Edition\, Swan Édit eur\, 2016\, p. 128.\n\n8 Ibid.\n\n9 George Daniels\, The Art of Breguet\, Sotheby Parke Bernet\, 1975\, p. 62.\n\n10 Emmanuel Breguet\, Breguet: Wa tchmakers Since 1775\, Revised and Expanded Edition\, Swan Éditeur\, 2016 \, p. 139. DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20251109 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR