Edmond JAEGER, Paris, Vers 1890 - Lot 322

Edmond JAEGER, Paris, Vers 1890 Parquet clock, said to be of precision and Regulateur type, running for 8 days. Straight cabinet in mahogany of Cuba surmounted by a hat with floral ornaments. Door with beveled glass and poly-lobed opening on hinge and closing on bolt. Movement enclosed in a gilt bronze protective case, with locking device, reminiscent of the architecture of marine chronometers. Dial signed in silvered metal with radiating Roman numerals for the hours, minute track and subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o'clock. Blued steel Breguet hands and balanced second hand. Winding square at 3 o'clock. Movement in solid brass of very beautiful workmanship with scraped decorations, beaded plates, steel polished - blocked (also called black polished or polished - ice)... Small plate signed. Anchor exhaust with adjustable vanes and having the particularity to be in body with the metal suspension in order to decrease the friction and thus to increase the precision. False plate signed with fixing by knurled screws. Drive drum with endless groove for the perfect winding of the rope, always with a view to limiting the disturbances linked to friction. Cylindrical motor weight with brass muffle. Bi-metallic balance (steel and brass) with balancing device and micrometric length adjustment by screw, finished with two cylindrical capsules. Height : 198 cm Width : 47 cm Depth : 21 cm Expert : Mathias RICCI Edmond Jaeger was one of the rare watchmakers who marked the history of watchmaking. He set up his first workshop in Paris in 1880 and never stopped building timepieces combining precision and technical innovation. Thus, in 1890, he delivered his first shipboard chronometers to the French Navy. At the same time, he designed an extra-flat watch movement that he wanted to put into large-scale production and turned to Switzerland to meet this technical challenge. Jacques-David LeCoultre, Antoine LeCoultre's grandson, saw this as a challenge and an opportunity and decided to take up the challenge and succeed in producing these demanding calibers. From this success was born a friendship between the two men who decided to collaborate, from 1903, for the production of simple and complicated extra-flat calibers. In 1907, Edmond Jaeger signed an exclusive contract with Louis Cartier, who purchased all of these Jaeger calibers under the name of European Watch & Clock Co (EWC) to equip his most luxurious pocket watches. This new partnership gave birth to modern watchmaking: Louis Cartier, wanting to please his aviator friend Santos-Dumont, asked Edmond Jaeger to design a caliber that could be worn on the wrist. The latter took up the challenge of miniaturization and launched production with LeCoultre in Switzerland to equip the very first wristwatch for men: The Cartier Santos. In 1915, Edmond Jaeger launched, with LeCoultre & Cie, the manufacture of on-board instruments for aviation and the automobile. From 1918 onwards, Edmond Jaeger gradually withdrew due to health problems and entrusted his Parisian watchmaking workshops to Paul Lebet, who came from the LeCoultre Manufacture. Edmond Jaeger died in 1922, at the age of 64, but his mark will remain forever. In fact, from 1937, the Manufacture LeCoultre, still in collaboration with Jaeger Paris, paid tribute to him by renaming itself Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre.