Editor’s note: this item is not for sale! It is a retrospective on a watch that used to be part of our collection.
1900’s BREVET movement and dial housed in a large, custom-made 14K rose gold case with five complications. This timepiece is assuredly one of the largest gold watches in the world. The vintage movement has a minute repeater, chronograph, and moon phase calendar. The set included a gift box, an additional elongated XXL strap, and an original gold pocket case – the complete collectible set. This watch was made as part of, and with the participation of The Watch Atelier.
An exclusive, custom-made large gold watch with five complications. Very large in size, made of solid, thick rose gold. During casting, it took over half a kilogram of gold to prepare this case. It is definitely one of the largest gold watches in the world. Please note that, due to the mirror polished finishing of the case, there will be reflections in the provided images.
The sophisticated vintage movement has the following functions: a minute repeater (beats the time on demand with gongs and hammers), a chronograph (built-in stopwatch), a full lunar calendar (day, date, month, moon phase indicator). The old movement used to be housed in a pocket case (a collector’s case), but a new wristwatch case of custom design has now been made for it. The manufacturer of the movement can be identified by the Swiss patent number: BREVET 13804, CHARLES HAHN & Cie LANDERON, Neuchatel.
The old Swiss movement is not the only interesting feature in this watch: the Russian language marking on the calendar dials indicate that this watch was originally intended to be for the market of the Russian Empire.
The minute repeater is one of the most complex hourly functions. A clever mechanism reads the time from the arrow pointer and then beats the current time to the nearest minute. The number of hours in beat in a lower tone, the number of full quarters (15-minute intervals) are indicated by a double beat, and the number of minutes in a quarter is hit in a high tone. Most of the repeater’s mechanics are mounted under the dial. The decelerator centrifuge-spinner, gongs and hammers are placed on the back plate. When the strike slider is cocked, the spring is started, the repeater comb system reads the current time, and beats it with a deep, clear tone. The function is spectacular, interesting, and one of the most difficult to implement mechanically.
A chronograph is a built-in stopwatch that allows you to measure time intervals. The principle of operation of the one-button chronograph is that when you press the button, you can switch sequentially between the three modes:
- The central second hand starts moving and counting from zero.
- The central arrow stops to take readings.
- The central hand is reset to zero, the chronograph is stopped and waits for a restart.
The “start-stop-reset” button of the chronograph is located opposite numeral 12.
The full lunar calendar combines four indicators:
- Date number indicator (by numeral 3).
- Day of the week indicator (by numeral 9).
- Month indicator (by numeral 12).
- Moon phase indicator (by numeral 6).
Rectangular buttons for switching indicators are located on the sides of the case.
