A. Lange & Söhne

An extremely rare deck watch for the Waffen-SS "Messbatterie" in near mint condition - ordered by the SS-Führungshauptamt in Berlin - purpose-built watch with seconds' device in mirror writing and jumping fifths of a seconds indication - with extra long leather strap and Lange & Söhne certificate of the watch museum Glashuette

Sold

estimated

25.000—30.000 €

Price realized

50.000 €

specific features

Case

Platinin, matted grey, push back.

Dial

Matted black, luminous Arabic/Roman numerals, centre seconds, outer minute scale 5-55, inner hour scale in mirror writing 5-55, fifths of a seconds' indication, luminous blued steel lance hands (re-lumed).

Movement

Manual.

Case no.210778

Cal.48

Diam.65 mm

Circa1941

Ctry.Germany

In 1940 the Waffen-SS ordered the company Lange & Soehne to develop a deck watch for the "Messbatterie", based on the Luftwaffe watch B but with a larger diameter. For photographic purposes the seconds numerals were to be added in mirror writing too. After some silver-cased prototypes, ten watches per month were to be delivered starting in March 1941.
According to the document at hand in November 1941 Lange & Soehne produced 21 of these watches in platinin cases with a diameter of 65 mm.
Lit.: "Militäruhren" by Konrad Knirim, Essen 2002, page 452.