Lot 112

Adolf Schneider

An extremely rare and early Glashuette hunting case precision pocket watch in quality 1A

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This is one of the few known pocket watches from the Adolf Schneider watch factory. According to the records by Hans-Georg Donner, the movement number, the ¾ plate and the fact that the sunburst polishing was not used, date the watch presumably to a timespan between 1865 and 1869.
According to the latest research conducted by Jürgen Peter, specialist in Glashütte timepieces, this pocket watch bearing the serial number 1678 is the earliest known watch signed by Schneider before the introduction of the ¾ plate. Unfortunately Schneider did not sign his work during the first 13 years. In 1867 A. Lange introduced the ¾ plate and other makers also began using it. Before Schneider began using it in 1867, he probably only produced 700 watches. Thus the watch can be dated to 1867. So far the lowest serial number with ¾ plate for a Schneider timepiece is no. 1725, implying that one manufacturing year passed between the production of no. 1678 and that of no. 1725.

Friedrich August Adolf Schneider was born in Dresden in 1824 and began his apprenticeship with Gutkaes in 1841. In 1845 Schneider decided to follow his friend and future brother-in-law Adolph Lange to Glashuette and be a foreman in his newly set-up watch manufacture. After working with Lange for 6 years, Schneider went on to start his own watchmaking company in 1851. He produced keywinding pocket watches at first but changed to winding crowns around 1865 when Lange's patented winding crown system was established. Schneider exported a large number of watches to the US; his local agent was Max Freund & Co. in New York. After Schneider's sudden death in 1878 his son continued the business. All in all the company produced about 3,000 pocket watches of the finest quality.
Source: "A. Lange & Söhne" by Reinhard Meis, Munich 1997, page 142f.