Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
A. Lugrin pocket watch, circa 1910
- Maker / attribution
- A. Lugrin (brand / maker)
- Date
- c. 1910
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- 18k pink gold
- Dimensions
- diameter 52.1 mm
- Auction house
- Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
- Lot
- Lot 357-1
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: LOT 1, Geneva,December 8, 2022
- Catalogue title (original)
- Lugrin made for T. Régis Pocket watch, quarter-repeater; 18K pink gold (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva (lot Lot 357-1), this is a pocket watch by A. Lugrin, dated c. 1910. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: 18k pink gold. Recorded dimensions: diameter 52.1 mm. The record is illustrated with 3 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Antiquorum catalogue description
18K pink gold, open-face, keyless-winding, round-shaped, pocket watch, with subsidiary seconds at 6 and one horological complication:· Quarter-repeater by two hammers on two steel gongs (activated by the slide located on the case-band at 9 o’clock)Case-back engraved in taille-douce with the cypher “A R”.White enamel dial with suspended Arabic numerals; blued steel “Spade” hands.Movement 19’’’ gilded brass, going barrel, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensated balance with poising screws and blued steel hairspring with terminal curve, polished steel index-regulator; repeater work on the main plate, under the dial, withpatented silent centrifugal force governor to regulate the speed of the repetition mechanism.
Lot specifications (Antiquorum)
Model: retailed by T. Régis, Aubin, Aveyron (France); Movement No.: 65 514; Case No.: 80 372; Material: 18K pink gold; Caliber: 19’’’, straight-line lever escapement; Diameter: 52.1 mm.; Weight: 85 gr. (approx.); Signature: cuvette (dome) (by the retailer)
Inscriptions & marks
cuvette (dome) (by the retailer)
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The pocket watch reached technical maturity and then began to give way to the wristwatch after the First World War. Complicated watches for collectors such as Henry Graves Jr. and James Ward Packard, railroad watches, and slim Art Deco dress watches are characteristic.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Repeating watches
Before electric light, telling the time in the dark was a real problem. Repeating watches strike the time on demand when a slide or push-piece is operated: quarter repeaters sound hours and quarters, minute repeaters hours, quarters and minutes. Edward Barlow and Daniel Quare disputed the invention in London in the 1680s. Early repeaters struck on a bell inside the case; Abraham-Louis Breguet introduced the gong (a coiled steel wire) around 1780, allowing thinner watches.
Repeaters require a separate train with racks, snails and a governor to control the striking speed, and are among the most demanding complications to make and adjust. Swiss makers of the Vallée de Joux specialised in repeating ébauches in the nineteenth century.
What to look for
- A slide on the case band or a push-piece through the pendant.
- Gongs encircling the movement (after c. 1780) or a bell in the case (earlier); pierced case for sound.
- The racks, snails and governor visible under the dial or on the movement.
- Terms such as 'Minutes', 'Quarts' or 'Répétition' on the dial or cuvette.
Dating clues
- Bell-striking quarter repeaters: c. 1690–1800.
- Gong repeaters and dumb repeaters (striking on the case): after c. 1780.
- Minute repeaters became more common after c. 1830 with Vallée de Joux ébauches.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Minute repeater
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Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva