The present watch is an extremely fine example of a highly complicated timepiece made by Louis Audemars for his faithful client, Breguet in Paris. The case is stamped ‘LA’ and numbered 11'782, with casemakers initials ‘MF’ for Meylan Frères, the cuvette is signed Breguet No. 3701.
This watch has had a fascinating history, passing through the hands of at least two very illustrious owners from very different worlds. According to the Archives of Montres Breguet, watch No. 3701 was sold on 22nd September 1894 to Messrs Mir et Cottereau, their agent in Constantinople (Istanbul) for the amount of 2,650 Francs.
It was later sold back to Breguet by the Ottoman Diplomat, Cherif Pacha on 28 February 1927 and then resold on the same day to the American collector Louis Harrison Dulles (Jr.) of Cleveland, Ohio, for 8000 Francs.
The case is stamped with Louis Audemars' shield-shaped hallmarks, one inscribed ‘Brassus’, one featuring a dog's head and capital letters L.A. for Louis Audemars above the double cross of Lorraine, see: Louis-Benjamin Audemars - His Life and Work by Hartmut Zantke, pp. 182 - 187.
Chérif Pasha or Mohammed Chérif Pasha was born in 1865 in Üsküdar (Istanbul), he was a diplomat and politician of the Ottoman Empire and a personality of Kurdish nationalism. At the beginning of the 20th century, Cherif Pacha belonged to the Supreme Council of the Grand National Lodge of Egypt. He died on December 22, 1951 in Catanzaro, Italy.
Louis Harrison Dulles Jr. was a passionate watch collector and an important and regular client of Breguet. Born in Philadelphia in 1899, he married Grace Thorne Crossman on 19 August 1921, shortly after the death of his father, the financier L. Harrison Dulles. Louis Harrison Dulles Jr. was reported in the New York Tribune on March 7, 1920 as the guest of honour of the Rainy Day Club at the Hotel Astor in New York the previous Wednesday, playing the violin, accompanied by Mrs James. N. Burt. He died in Montreux, Switzerland in 1971.
It is thought the Louis Harrison Dulles was the brother of Allen Welsh Dulles (1893-1969), first civilian Director (1953-1961) of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a member of the Warren Commission, John Foster Dulles (1888-1959), US Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Eleanor Lansing Dulles (1885-1996), author, teacher and government employee.
The Dulles siblings were members of a diplomatic dynasty which spanned three generations: their grandfather, John Watson Foster, served as US Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison, their mother's sister was the wife of Robert Lansing, US Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson.
His name is notably mentioned in Breguet - Watchmakers since 1775 by Emmanuel Breguet, chapter ‘The Century of the Brown Family 1870-1970’, p. 320: “The firm's clientele was now distributed geographically as far as Japan and the United States and included such striking figures as the Maharajah of Kapurthala, Prince Mirza of Persia, King Fouad I of Egypt and the American L.H. Dulles".
Other watches known to date sold by Breguet to Mr. and Mrs. Dulles include the following, listed after the sale dates:
No. 3701, the present watch, originally sold on 22 September 1894 for 2,650 Francs, bought back from Cherif Pacha on 28 February 1927 for 8000 Francs and sold on the same day and for the same amount to Monsieur L.H. Dulles:
An 18K gold openface quarter repeating perpetual calendar keyless lever watch with phases of the moon and independent centre seconds
No. 1715 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 4 June 1927 for 6,700 Francs: An 18K white gold "chronoscope" or wandering hours watch
Sold in this saleroom on 16 November 2006, lot 299
No. 1939, lot 51 in this auction, sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 7 January 1928 for 7,040 Francs:
An 18K gold hunter case keyless lever chronometer watch
No. 1648 sold to Madame Dulles on 18 December 1928 for 31,000 old Francs:
An 18K gold openface perpetual calendar watch with winding indicator, equation of time, phases and age of the moon
No. 1639 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 29 July 1929 for 40,000 Francs:
An 18K gold openface perpetual calendar watch with phases of the moon, equation of time and sunrise/sunset indication, calculated for the latitude of New York
No. 926, originally sold on 1 February 1926 to Jean Dollfus for the amount of 20,000 Francs, bought back in 1954 and sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 3 September 1954:
An 18K gold openface keyless one minute tourbillon watch with Guillaume balance and Neuchâtel Bulletin d'Observatoire
No. 2524 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 22 October 1954:
An 18K gold openface perpetual calendar keyless lever watch with centre seconds and phases of the moon
No. 3357 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 22 November 1959 for 900,000 old Francs:
An 18K two colour gold openface keyless watch with winding indicator and one minute tourbillon
No. 4580 sold to Monsieur L.H. Dulles on 19 February 1960 for 6,000 Francs:
An 18K gold keyless pocket chronometer
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