A. Lange & Söhne

An important, very fine and extremely rare Glashuette hunting case minute repeating pocket watch with perpetual calendar and moon phase, manufactured in quality 1A and sold to J. Schumacher company, Crefeld on March 9th, 1895 at a special price for 2,300 marks. Only 8 examples of this highly complicated watches were produced by Lange & Söhne - with original box, original certificate, Lange extract from the archives, rating certificate of the Royal University Observatory in Leipzig and original sales receipt

Sold

estimated

90.000—150.000 €

Price realized

146.300 €

specific features

Case

18 K pink gold, tiered, polished, case design "Louis XV", gold dome with dedication engraving: "Albert Ebeling, Crefeld, 3. Juni 1860", glazed movement.

Dial

Enamel, Arabic "Empire" numerals, auxiliary seconds, inserted day, date and month indicator with leap year compensation, cobalt blue enamelled moon phase disc with inlaid golden stars and moon, gold Louis XV hands.

Movement

3/4 plate movement, screwed gold chatons, 2 hammers, 2 gongs, gold screw compensation balance, very finely engraved balance cock, index spring fine adjusting device, gold lever and escape wheel, chatoned diamond endstone on balance.

Case no.32302

Cal.43

Diam.58 mm

Circa1895

Ctry.Germany

Wt.195 g

In December 2020 this watch was completely serviced at Lange Uhren GmbH for the sum of 21,291.80 euros.

Among the existing eight pocket watches with minute repeaters and perpetual calendars, this is the only one to feature a register of the Royal University Observatory in Leipzig.
The available rating certificate of the Royal University Observatory in Leipzig was signed by Prof. Dr. E. H. Bruns (1848-1919). A student of councillor Prof. W. Foerster in Berlin, Bruns had become well-known for his testing of watches and clocks and was in 1882 appointed director of the Royal University Observatory in Leipzig. He systemized the tests his predecessor C. C. Bruns (1810-1881) had introduced from 1863 on; those tests continued to be conducted until the destruction of the observatory in 1943. All significant companies in Glashuette submitted their watches for ratings.