Cortébert Art Deco Dress Watch 'Sector' Dial 1940s

The sector dial is one of the most visually compelling configurations that 1930s and 1940s watchmaking produced — a two-tone arrangement in which the outer chapter ring and inner dial field are rendered in contrasting tones. On this Cortébert from the 1940s, that configuration is executed with exceptional quality: a warm cream inner field framed by a copper-salmon outer ring, both carrying the period's characteristic patina, with black Arabic numerals and a fine minute track running the full circumference. The blued steel hands complete a combination that is immediately and unmistakably Art Deco in its sensibility.

Cortébert was a La Chaux-de-Fonds manufacture with a long history of producing movements for their own cases as well as for other Swiss houses, and the Caliber. 671S in this example is a characterful and well-made manual wind movement of the period. A dial of this quality and condition, on a case of this preservation, is a rare encounter in the 1940s dress watch market.