James Stratton
Director
Lot 59TP
A fine first half of the 20th century Swiss walnut bow-fronted wall regulator Zenith, No. 90
2 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £7,000
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Lewis Walduck
Cataloguer
A fine first half of the 20th century Swiss walnut bow-fronted wall regulator
Zenith, No. 90
The case with flat top over a separately opening cylindrical glazed front door fitted with inset handle and lock to the left, above a matching lower door with glazed panel, both framed by simple walnut mouldings and raised on a flat base. The 8 inch printed dial with outer minute ring enclosing subsidiary seconds and hours dials, signed and numbered Zenith, No. 90. The weight-driven movement with high count train, maintaining power and deadbeat escapement with jewelled pallets, the pendulum suspended separately with cylindrical bob, knurled rating nut and roller suspension. Currently ticking. 135cms (53ins) high.
The case with flat top over a separately opening cylindrical glazed front door fitted with inset handle and lock to the left, above a matching lower door with glazed panel, both framed by simple walnut mouldings and raised on a flat base. The 8 inch printed dial with outer minute ring enclosing subsidiary seconds and hours dials, signed and numbered Zenith, No. 90. The weight-driven movement with high count train, maintaining power and deadbeat escapement with jewelled pallets, the pendulum suspended separately with cylindrical bob, knurled rating nut and roller suspension. Currently ticking. 135cms (53ins) high.
Footnotes
Perhaps 180 or so of these precision wall regulators were produced in the second quarter of the 20th century. Zenith run three fully operational examples in their Museum in Neuchâtel. The name most commonly associated with the production of these fine instruments is that of Charles Rosat, head of the firm's Chronométrie Division. Rosat and a small team of in-house craftsmen carried out much of the meticulous work involved in production in his own workshop in Boudry, near Neuchâtel, where the movements were built and carefully adjusted.
While a number of these clocks incorporated self-winding mechanisms and served to distribute time via electrical signals to subsidiary dials, the example discussed here appears to have been intended as a standalone workshop regulator rather than a master timekeeper.