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An Important Swiss two-day centre-seconds marine chronometer with lever escapement

PAUL DITISHEIM, NO. 1001. CIRCA 1921

Details

An Important Swiss two-day centre-seconds marine chronometer with lever escapement
Paul Ditisheim, No. 1001. Circa 1921
The dial signed SOLVIL GENÈVE flanked by Grand Prix insignia for Paris in 1900 and Berne in 1914 and further signed MAKER TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT HOLDER OF THE KEW AND TEDDINGTON RECORDS, MAKER TO THE UNITED STATES NAVY RECORD HOLDER NEUCHATEL OBSERVATORY 305 STATE PRIZES PATENTED SWISS MADE, concentric outer sweep seconds with each seconds division sub-divided into 5ths, eccentric Roman and Arabic hour and minute dial numbered 1001 to the centre and having outer concentric Arabic chapters, further Roman chapters and inner concentric chapters 13 to 24, the gilt movement secured to the solid gilt and hatch-graved dial plate signed Paul Ditisheim CENTRAL SECOND MARINE CHRONOMETER SEVEN SWISS PATENTS, the movement with similarly hatched circular gilt-brass plates secured with four pillars with blued steel screws to the top plate numbered 1001, the escapement housed within a glazed sub-assembly secured to the top plate with Guillaume balance, flat blued steel hairspring and jewelled lever escapement, the hands adjusted indirectly via a milled wheel to the outside of the bowl, the brass-bound box with recessed drop handles to the sides
7½in. (19cm.) high

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Paul Chamberlain, It's about Time, 1978, pp.463-7;
....M. Paul Ditisheim excelled in every form of watchmaking. He made the smallest watch in the world for the Sultan of Morocco, he designed and executed timepieces of great precision, and exhibited enviable talent as a regleur of his own pieces. He collaborated with Dr. Guillaume in the application of Invar and Elinvar, and produced by their own use and to his own invention of an 'affix', or very small bimetal compensation to the solid balance, a movement which made new records at most of the observatories of the world. A silver cased nineteen jewel, 'up and down' indicator watch, costing sixteen dollars at the factory, sent by me to the Bureau of Standards, took a First Grade Certificate'.

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