111st Auction

2024/11/16

Lot 10

A. Lange & Söhne

A very fine, extremely rare Glashuette pocket watch with chronograph in an American "Joseph Ruff" case, in manufactured in quality 1A and sold in 1889 for 800 marks

Sold

estimated
9.00013.000 €
Price realized
7.500 €
specific features
Case
18 K gold, polished, case design "Jürgens", gold dome with presentation engraving: "Sarah to John, Christmas 1863, Renewed 34th Anny., Jany. 23rd 1885".
Dial
Enamel.
Movement
3/4 plate movement, very finely ground and bevelled chronograph steel parts, ratchet wheel, club-tooth lever escapement, gold screw compensation balance.
Case no.1699
Diam.52 mm
Circa1885
Ctry.Germany
Wt.121 g


In the early 1870s R. Lange started designing a new chronograph which had the mechanism above the train, so that the mechanism could be attached to a "normal" watch movement. The upper seconds bearing received a new bridge and acted as the bearing for the clutch lever. A central chrono wheel with an upper steel bridge was fed through the minute wheel and all levers and springs were highly ground and bevelled. The mechanism was operated by a pusher in the crown, with the sequence being start, stop and reset. The most basic version only had one chronograph hand, chronographs with minute counters were much more complicated.
Lit.: Detailed description and illustration in Reinhard Meis "A. Lange & Söhne" Callwey Verlag, page 242


Case maker J(oseph) Ruff was a retailer of A. Lange & Söhne watches in Chicago.