Live Auction 1413Rare Watches Including Important Private Collections
Verger Frères, made for Grogan Co. A fine, rare and unusual 18K yellow gold and platinum openface "bras en l’air" keyless lever dress watch
Lot 122 The Property of an Important Private Collector

Verger Frères, made for Grogan Co. A fine, rare and unusual 18K yellow gold and platinum openface "bras en l’air" keyless lever dress watch

Signed Verger Frères, retailed by Grogan Co., movement no. 140'171, case no. 10'285, circa 1930

Closed16 May 2016

Price Realised

CHF 16,250

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Verger Frères, made for Grogan Co. A fine, rare and unusual 18K yellow gold and platinum openface "bras en l’air" keyless lever dress watch
Signed Verger Frères, retailed by Grogan Co., movement no. 140'171, case no. 10'285, circa 1930
Mechanical movement stamped twice with the Geneva seal, 18 jewels, silvered dial with two arched sectors calibrated for the retrograde hours and minutes, an applied gold and black enamel seated Buddha raising his arms to indicate the time when a button in the band is depressed, circular yellow gold case, coin-edged band, platinum rims to bezel and snap on back, yellow gold pendant and platinum bow, case signed Verger Frères and numbered 10'285, dial signed Grogan Co.
44 mm. diam.

Specialist note

The present watch is an excellent example of the "bras en l'air" watch, one of the most novel and ingenious ways to show the time. When the button in the band of the case is depressed, the figure raises its arms to point to the time. The mechanism was invented towards the end of the 18th century and enjoyed a revival during the Art Deco period thanks to Ferdinand Verger, the maker of the present watch, who made them for many of the best jewellers of the time. Grogan was a well-known jeweller in Philadelphia who was noted for retailing unusual and rare watches.

Archival photographs of similar watches are published in Audemars Piguet, by Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli and Martin K. Wehrli, Le Brassus, 1993, p. 98, and in The World of Vacheron Constantin, Genève, Lambelet/Coen, 1992, p. 389.