Lot 122

A. Lange & Söhne

A fine Glashuette hunting case pocket watch in thin design with independent jumping seconds mechanism "seconde morte", manufactured in quality 1A, the first time sold on 12/19/1912 for 941 marks to Com. Rat W. Reithoffer in Vienna and sold again on 03/10/1917 for 1128 marks to Karl Griesbaum in Triberg - with original box, original certificate and Lange extract from the archives

Sold

The watch was originally sold on December 19, 1912 to "Kommerzialrat" (honorary title) W. Reithoffer in Vienna. No information is available on when and why it was returned to Lange & Söhne. The second owner Karl Griesbaum (1871-1941) was the proprietor of Germany’s most famous manufactory for singingbird cage automatons and boxes, based in Triberg in the Black Forest.

Jumping seconds mechanism or "seconde morte"
Lange felt that the readability of the jumping auxiliary seconds was not satisfactory in a pocket watch, so he started following another course. By 1867 he had designed a mechanism which allowed an independent large central seconds hand to jump every second. The hand had usually a stop device but could not be reset to zero. 1877 his sons filed a patent for a slightly modified version of A. Lange's mechanism (no. 182). This seconds mechanism on a 3/4 plate created a precision watch which had the indication system of an astronomical pendulum clock but was portable.