Our first live auction of 2023, PHILLIPS Geneva Watch Auction: XVII, takes place on May 13 and 14, at La Réserve Genève. The auction includes more than 200 of the world's finest watches – and though we loath to boast, we truly think it's one of the best catalogs we've ever assembled. We'll be spotlighting a number of the most interesting lots and stories featured in the sale over the next month, including the extraordinary Philippe Dufour for Audemars Piguet Grande et Petite Sonnerie Pocket Watch No.1 seen here.
– By Logan Baker
One of the many highlights of The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII is the very first pocket watch ever built and commercialized by the master Swiss watchmaker Philippe Dufour. It’s a large 18k yellow gold two-train minute repeating timepiece with grande and petite sonnerie, originally retailed by Asprey, the famed London luxury retailer. The pocket watch has an open face, with no cover, which reveals that the name across the white enamel dial is, in fact, not that of Philippe Dufour – despite the fact that it was completely designed, created, and assembled by Dufour himself.
The name on the dial is Audemars Piguet, who contracted Dufour to create a total of five grande and petite sonnerie pocket watches in the 1980s. The example included in The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII is the very first of that small series, and the only one of the five to include Dufour’s engraved signature (on a dial-side movement plate).
Dufour, who turns 75 this year, has had a career that is as long and winding as the stem of the tobacco pipe that he’s famously never far away from. He started at Jaeger-LeCoultre in the late 1960s, before spending time at Gérald Genta and Audemars Piguet, as well as focusing on restoration work for Galerie d’Horlogerie Ancienne. Dufour eventually established his own workshop in 1978, balancing his time between restoration work and developing a grande and petite sonnerie pocket watch inspired by a vintage Reymond Frères caliber.
Once Dufour completed the movement, he cased it in brass and took several meetings with large Swiss brands who he hoped would support the commercialization and serial development of the pocket watch and movement.
Audemars Piguet eventually agreed to do so, placing an order for five completed examples.
Dufour delivered the first pocket watch – the exact one included in The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII – in 1982, and the fifth and final watch in 1988. Dufour and Audemars Piguet soon went their separate ways, and Dufour turned around to create a new grande and petite sonnerie pocket watch that was largely identical to his work for Audemars Piguet, except his name was now on the dial.
Soon after that, he introduced the world’s first wristwatch with a grande and petite sonnerie.
Dufour is one of the most respected and important watchmakers in all of Switzerland – his approach and style of watchmaking is emblematic of Swiss watchmaking tradition in the most classic sense. And all that success and history began with the creation of this very pocket watch.
Dufour’s personal story is a remarkable and inspiring one, captivating for his dedication and belief in traditional Vallée de Joux watchmaking, but what is it – from a technical perspective – that makes a pocket watch like the Philippe Dufour for Audemars Piguet Grande et Petite Sonnerie Pocket Watch No.1 so special?
Well, it’s important to know what a grande and petite sonnerie is to start, especially what exactly makes it different than your average chiming timepiece. In fact, the grande and petite sonnerie is so complex that it wasn’t introduced into a wristwatch until Dufour was able to reproduce it, in 1992.
Unlike other high-end complicated mechanisms like the tourbillon, the perpetual calendar, and the split-seconds chronograph, there is no budget version of a proper grande and petite sonnerie out there – it’s simply too delicate of a complication to require anything other than the most skilled hand in adjustment.
A grande and petite sonnerie typically has four different “modes” for indicating the time. When the watch is in grande sonnerie mode, it audibly indicates the time en passant – or “in passing” – which means that it will chime the time every hour on the hour, as well as every quarter hour. The petite sonnerie mode restricts the chime to solely the hours, and then there’s the option for a silent mode where the en passant capability is completely shut off.
The grande and petite sonnerie is typically combined with a minute repeater, enabling an on-demand chime, and Dufour’s creation is no different. There are two different slides on the caseband on opposite sides of the 12 o’clock crown. The slide near one o’clock can be switched between grande and petite sonnerie modes, while the slide near 11 o’clock can be toggled between activating the minute repeater and the silent mode.
The main issue that arises in constructing a grande and petite sonnerie is the distribution of power. How is it possible to maintain a consistent flow of energy to both the timekeeping mechanism and the sonnerie capabilities? After all, unlike a minute repeater that is activated/wound on demand via the slide mechanism, a sonnerie must have a constant supply of energy to chime en passant – especially when you realize that, when in grande sonnerie mode, the watch will strike more than 900 times in a single day.
The traditional approach, and the one favored by Dufour, utilizes an intricate winding system with two separate mainspring barrels, each with their own integrated ratchet wheel and click. One barrel powers the sonnerie mechanism, and the other, the primary timekeeping function. A single crown and crown wheel are used to wind each barrel; simply twist the crown in one direction to wind the sonnerie barrel, or the other direction to power up the timekeeping barrel. The clicks and wolf’s teeth on each ratchet wheel function as a clutch, ensuring each barrel only winds in a single direction, slipping when the other barrel is being actively wound.
Inside each of the ratchet wheels is a secondary pair of clicks that stop the barrels from being instantaneously unwound, performing the traditional function of the click. The two-layer ratchet wheel construction adds significant height to the movement; you can see how tall each bridge is by looking at the depth of the countersinks on each screw and jewel slot.
You’ll see on the movement of the Grande et Petite Sonnerie No.1 that the two barrels and the crown wheel are placed on center stage within the movement architecture, featuring their own bridge and taking up almost 50 percent of the visible space. The two bridges closest to the barrels secure the separate, independent trains that control the flow of energy from the mainspring barrels to the chiming mechanism and escapement.
The large L-shaped bridge that appears to corral the balance into a corner stabilizes the traditional timekeeping gear train, with the second, third, fourth, and escape wheels all neatly lined up to transfer energy from the barrel to the escapement and then finally to the spade-style handset on the dial. In addition to its unique shape, this meandering bridge is also likely the best testament to the legendary quality of Dufour’s hand finishing on the watch. The anglage and Côtes de Genève are exemplary, but it’s the dramatic execution of the interior and exterior angles that steals the show.
Dufour designed each bridge in the movement so that every angle would be reflected in kind; an interior angle on one bridge, for example, is reflected by an exterior angle on its nearest counterpart. The result is a movement architecture that almost looks like a puzzle being slowly pieced together, which is why the central L-shaped bridge is marked with an abnormal amount of angles as it weaves its way through every other bridge in the movement.
I counted seven interior angles and five exterior angles on the L-shaped bridge by itself.
The sonnerie barrel connects to the second train, which incorporates a governor mechanism to regulate the speed and pace at which the hammers strike the gongs. You can actually see the governor inside the movement from the caseback – it’s the smaller yellow gear near the sonnerie barrel and second wheel, connected beneath the large jewel on the cloud-shaped bridge. If you watch the video linked at the beginning of this article, you’ll see it slowly rotate when the movement is actively chiming and paused when there’s no chime.
The bridge that secures the governor in place is replete with plenty of fine decoration, including four interior angles and three exterior angles. One of the two hammers is also partially hidden underneath this bridge, with the second hammer located to its left. This bridge also features the Audemars Piguet signature, while Philippe Dufour’s signature is engraved on a dial-side movement plate that is only visible if the movement or the dial has been removed from the case.
The movement inside Grande et Petite Sonnerie No.1 utilizes two gongs, tuned to a low and high note, with a pair of black-polished steel hammers. When the watch is in grande sonnerie mode, the hours are struck on the higher pitched gong, with each strike representing one passing hour.
Every quarter hour, meanwhile, involves striking the higher-pitched chime for whatever hour it is, immediately followed by a pair of low then high-pitched strikes representing each quarter hour. If the time was 10:45, for example, you’d hear 10 high pitched chimes for the hour, followed by six chimes for the quarter hour (three high-pitched and low-pitched strikes, delivered in alternating order).
The polished 18k yellow gold case is impressive in its stature, with a 61mm diameter and a large crown at 12 o’clock inside an oval-shaped bow. There is no additional cover for the dial-side of the watch outside of the crystal, but the movement-side features a cuvette-style housing with two separate hinged gold covers. The external back is blank, while the inner cover is embellished with labels such as “Audemars Piguet,” “Swiss Made,” “Grande Sonnerie,” “No.1,” and “Asprey.”
The latter of those signatures, of course, refers to Asprey London, the famous London department store that has a storied history of selling unique and unusual wristwatches from the likes of Rolex and Audemars Piguet. Asprey, for example, held the exclusive Royal Warrant from the Sultan of Oman, resulting in a series of Rolex sport watches emblazoned with the Omani Khanjar crest or the Sultan’s signature on the dial. An Audemars Piguet Royal Oak with an Asprey signature on the caseback sold for more than CHF one million during the thematic Royal Oak 50th Anniversary auction hosted by PHILLIPS in Geneva in May 2022.
It’s not surprising, then, that Asprey would retail an important watch like the Audemars Piguet Grande et Petite Sonnerie No.1, adding another level of desirability to this historically important pocket watch.
The dial is crafted from glossy fired white enamel with the Audemars Piguet wordmark, as well as elongated Roman numerals, a minute track, and heat-blued spade hands. A sunken seconds sub-dial made out of a separate enamel disc has been soldered to the main dial at six o’clock. As part of his contract with Audemars Piguet, Dufour had to obtain the dials and the cases himself before the watches could be delivered, sourcing them from suppliers he knew in the Vallée de Joux.
Dufour has said that he spent approximately 2,000 hours on each of the five pocket watches that he created for Audemars Piguet, demonstrating how difficult of an endeavor it was for him to complete.Of course, less than a decade after the Grande et Petite Sonnerie No.1 was delivered to Audemars Piguet, Philippe Dufour would embark on his now-storied solo career.
As for the unique grande and petite sonnerie pocket watch he created with his name on the dial in 1989? Well, you might remember that it sold for CHF 2,329,000 at the PHILLIPS Geneva Watch Auction: XIV, in November 2021.
As deeply special and incredible as that watch was, there can only ever be one first – and the Grande et Petite Sonnerie No.1, created by Philippe Dufour in 1982 for Audemars Piguet, and retailed by Asprey London, stands out as exactly that: the very first timepiece created by Dufour from scratch to be commercialized.
It has appeared at auction only once before, in April 2012 in Hong Kong, where it sold for HKD $1,340,000. And now, in less than one month, Dufour's debut pocket watch will come up for sale once again, for only the third time since Dufour finished it more than 40 years ago, as lot 127 in The Geneva Watch Auction: XVII at PHILLIPS, with an estimate of CHF 400,000 – 800,000.
You can learn more about the Philippe Dufour for Audemars Piguet Grande et Petite Sonnerie Pocket Watch No.1 and register to bid on it by visiting the online catalog for PHILLIPS Geneva Watch Auction: XVII.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade working in watch-focused media, reporting on every aspect of the industry. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
Recommended Reading
Philippe Dufour Talks About His Simplicity (Old and New)
Naissance d’une Montre II: Making A Watch By Hand in the 21st Century