
Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Heuer wristwatch, Triple Date Moonphase, circa 1940's
- Maker / attribution
- Heuer (brand / maker)
- Date
- c. 1940s
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Materials / technique
- stainless steel
- Dimensions
- diameter 35 mm
- Auction house
- Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
- Lot
- Lot 360-12
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: LOT 12, Geneva,May 2023
- Catalogue title (original)
- HEUER, TRIPLE DATE MOONPHASE, STEEL (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 360-12), this is a wristwatch by Heuer, made in Switzerland, dated c. 1940s. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: stainless steel. Recorded dimensions: diameter 35 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
A fine and rare, early, manual wind, stainless steel triple date calendar wristwatch with moonphase
Lot specifications (Antiquorum)
Movement No.: 550096; Case No.: 81884; Caliber: Valjoux 88; Diameter: 35 mm.; Signature: Dial, case and movement signed
Inscriptions & marks
Dial, case and movement signed
Provenance
Property of a Swiss gentleman
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Calendar, moon-phase and perpetual calendar watches
Calendar complications range from a simple date to the perpetual calendar, which automatically allows for months of different lengths and leap years until 2100. Pocket watches with perpetual calendars were made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Patek Philippe made the first perpetual calendar wristwatch in 1925, and series production followed in 1941. The annual calendar (Patek Philippe, 1996) needs correction only once a year.
Moon-phase displays use a disc with two moons and 59 teeth advanced daily, approximating the 29.5-day lunation; more precise trains reduce the error to one day in over a century.
What to look for
- Apertures or subsidiary dials for day, date, month and leap year.
- Moon disc under a 'bosom' shaped aperture.
- Recessed correctors on the case band for setting the calendar.
Dating clues
- Triple-date wristwatches: popular c. 1940–1955.
- Perpetual calendar wristwatches: from 1925 (unique) and 1941 (series).
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.
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