Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Borel Fils & Cie pocket watch, chronograph triple date à guichet (with aperture), circa 1900
- Maker / attribution
- Borel Fils & Cie (brand / maker)
- Date
- c. 1900
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Materials / technique
- gold
- Dimensions
- diameter 55.5 mm
- Auction house
- Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
- Lot
- Lot 343-19
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: LOT 19, Hong Kong, October 14, 2021
- Catalogue title (original)
- Borel Fils & Cie Minute-repeater, chronograph, triple date à guichet (with aperture), moon phases, made for the Russian market; 14K pink gold (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva (lot Lot 343-19), this is a pocket watch by Borel Fils & Cie, dated c. 1900. 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: gold. Recorded dimensions: diameter 55.5 mm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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
14K pink gold (56 Zolotniks), hunting-case, keyless-winding, round-shaped, pocket watch, made for the Russian market, with subsidiary seconds at 6 and six horological complications:· Minute-repeater on two steel gongs (activated by the slide located on the case-band at 6 o’clock)· 1/5 second chronograph (activated by the single olive-shaped push-piece located on the case-band at 12 o’clock)· Half-instantaneous date of the month (subsidiary dial at 3 o’clock)· Day of the week (subsidiary dial at 9 o’clock; indications given in Russian)· Month of the year (aperture at 12 o’clock; indications given in Russian)· Phases of the moon (aperture at 6 o’clock)Guilloché engine-turning case-back and cover.White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals; yellow gold “Spade” hands.20’’’, rhodium-plated, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensated balance with gold poising screws and blued steel hairspring with terminal curve, index regulator; repeater work with centrifugal governor; chronograph work on the top plate.
Lot specifications (Antiquorum)
Movement No.: 81 977 (ebauche No. 537 by E. Mathey-Tissot & Cie, Les Ponts-de-Martel, Le Locle); Case No.: 81 977; Material: 14K pink gold; Caliber: 20’’’, lever escapement; Diameter: 55.5 mm.; Weight: 140.5 gr.; Signature: dial, case and movement; Accessories: copy of the invention patent
Inscriptions & marks
dial, case and movement
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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