Pocket Watches · Pocket chronometer
Paul Ditisheim "chronomètre de Bord", circa 1924/25
- Maker / attribution
- Paul Ditisheim (brand / maker)
- Date
- 1924
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Pocket chronometer
- Materials / technique
- silver
- Dimensions
- 65 mm.
- Auction house
- Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva
- Lot
- Lot 390-141
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: LOT 141
- Catalogue title (original)
- PAUL DITISHEIM, SWITZERLAND, "CHRONOMÈTRE DE BORD", "CHRONOMÈTRE DE BORD", AWARDED FIRST PRIZE AT BOTH THE OBSERVATORIES OF NEUCHÂTEL, SWITZERLAND, AND THE NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY OF KEW & TEDDINGTON, ENGLAND., SILVER
Record summary
Catalogued by Antiquorum auction archive, Geneva (lot Lot 390-141), this is a pocket chronometer by Paul Ditisheim, made in Switzerland, dated 1924. 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: silver. Recorded dimensions: 65 mm. The record is illustrated with 2 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
An extremely fine, impressive and rare, silver, manual wind Keyless deck chronometer watch fitted with a Guillaume balance. Massive polished case with fluted band, the back stamped with the maker’s trademark, and hinged silver cuvette. Matte silver dial with champlevé radial Roman numerals and outer minute track, 52-hour up-and-down power reserve indicator, subsidiary seconds, and engraved in red « Grand Prix Paris 1900 ». Blued steel spade hands. Awarded First Prize at both the Neuchâtel Observatory in Switzerland and the National Physical Laboratory of Kew & Teddington in England.
Lot specifications (Antiquorum)
Caliber: 55 mm., matte gilt, 21 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, anibal-brass Guillaume balance with gold temperature screws, adjusted to nine positions and isochronism, blued steel Breguet balance spring, going train jeweled to the center with end stones on the entire escapement, index regulator.; Case No.: 65020; Movement No.: 65018; Signature: Dial, case and movement, case by the master casemaker G. Perrenoud-Fasel & Cie.
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
Chronographs and split-seconds watches
A chronograph is a watch with an additional seconds hand that can be started, stopped and returned to zero independently of the timekeeping. Louis Moinet built an early example in 1816 and Nicolas Rieussec a recording 'chronographe' in 1821; Adolphe Nicole's heart-shaped reset cam (patented 1862) made the modern return-to-zero possible. Split-seconds (rattrapante) chronographs add a second hand that can be stopped for intermediate times; flyback chronographs restart instantly.
Chronographs were essential tools for doctors (pulsometer scales), artillery (telemeter), engineers and sport. In wristwatches, Valjoux, Venus, Lemania and later the automatic chronographs of 1969 (Zenith El Primero, the Chronomatic Calibre 11 group and Seiko 6139) are milestones.
What to look for
- Push-pieces on the case band or a single button in the crown (monopusher).
- Subsidiary registers for minutes and hours; tachymeter, telemeter or pulsometer scales.
- Column wheel versus cam control visible in the movement.
- Calibre markings of specialist makers (Valjoux, Lemania, Venus, Landeron).
Dating clues
- Pocket chronographs with heart cam reset: after 1862.
- Wrist chronographs: from c. 1910; two-button designs from the 1930s.
- Automatic chronographs: from 1969.
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.
Related records
Instruments · 1925
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Balance / regulating part by Ditisheim, Paul, Europe, 1920-1925
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Movements & Components · 1920-1925
Model of Paul Ditisheim's monometallic compensation balance for use with Elinvar hairsprings, with radial poising screws, Europe, 1920-1925
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