Vintage Breguet #1030 Triple Calendar Wristwatch

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/30/2019

Breguet #1030. A rare and important triple calendar wristwatch with moon phases, stainless steel case and champagne dial ca:1945-50, Cal. 12 mechanical jeweled lever movement, champagne gilt dial, with oxidation to champagne field and darkening of numbers, applied alternating gold dot and Arabic numerals, alpha hands, outer blue date ring with central date hand, separate beveled window displays for day and month (in French), subsidiary dial for moon phases and constant seconds, circular stainless steel case with horn-shaped lugs, stainless steel snap on back with engine turned interior, dial signed and numbered, case and movement numbered, 35 mm. diam. (excluding lugs), width between lugs: 18mm, For a very similar example, but cased in 18k gold, see: Christies’ SALE #1413, Lot#131 (May 16th, 2016) Signed and numbered #1030 on the dial, this triple calendar moon phase wristwatch shares a number of identical features with Breguet #1039, including the identical dial, with the same combination of applied gold dots and applied Arabic numerals, the unique design of the moon phase sub-dial and the unusual use of alpha hands for the hours and minutes. Additionally, they also share a similar printed outer blue date ring, the central date hand shaded at the arrowhead, and the same separate beveled windows for displaying the day and month, utilizing the same French text and typeface. The dials are also inscribed in the same manner, with the watch’s number displayed on the left and the Breguet name on the right. Both share snap-on case backs lacking any exterior markings, and the interior of both case backs are marked only with the letter “B” followed by the watch’s unique identifying numbers (which appear to have been stamped with some of the same punches). Besides the differences in the case materials, it should be noted that the stainless back of #1030 features engine turned decoration in the interior. They share identical movements, although the engraved watch numbers – located in the same place on the movement – differ for each watch. With regards to the rarity of production of triple calendar moon phase examples from Breguet, the company’s output seems to have been extremely limited, having concentrated on other types of movement complications. The Breguet archives seem to indicate that perhaps only as few as five of these were made. It is not yet clear how many of those were cased in stainless steel, but we suspect that is the rarer of the two case materials. Provenance: Originally purchased by Dr. Victor L. King on April 7th , 1952. Breguet, SA has confirmed the watch’s authenticity, stating the watch was originally purchased by Dr. Victor King on April 7th, 1952. The certificate of authenticity has been ordered from Breguet and will be offered to the winning bidder along with the watch Additional information can be provided upon request.