Lot 30

Dürrstein & Co.

A historically interesting, heavy, astronomical Dresden hunting case pocket watch with minute repeater, perpetual calendar and moon phase

Sold

This exquisite pocket watch is part of a special edition of complicated watches that were produced for the German market in the late 19th century.
The inner lid of the rose gold hunting case is stamped with the Dürrstein hallmark, "D" in a star. The white enamel dial has Arabic numerals, four subsidiary dials for day, month with leap year and date as well as auxiliary seconds with a cobalt blue enamel moon phase disc with inlaid golden stars and moon.
The watch was a gift to Carl Kaempff (1855-1930), the captain of the first purely touristic cruise to the northern tip of Norway, presented by the passengers on board the luxury liner "Augusta Victoria". The journey signalled the beginning of pleasure cruises, a concept which would soon be adopted worldwide.
In the late 19th century when the great ocean liners were still regarded as engineering marvels, the "Augusta Victoria" was one of the finestest ships of her time. Named after Empress Auguste Viktoria of Germany and put into service in 1888, she was the flagship of the "Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft" (HAPAG). In addition to the regular service from Hamburg to New York the "Augusta Victoria" undertook the first organised cruises, which were purely for recreation and pleasure. In the summer of 1894 the "Augusta Victoria" travelled under the command of captain Carl Kaempff from Hamburg via Trondheim to the northern tip of Norway. The passengers on board were mainly members of the wealthy European upper class, who paid high prices for this exclusive trip.
Among the highlights of these northern trips up to Svalbard were encounters with the imperial yacht "Hohenzollern", such as in 1901 in the Sognefjord near Lærdalsøyri. Emperor Wilhelm II. inspected the "Augusta Victoria" and complimented captain Kaempff for his fine manoeuvring in the narrow fjord. In 1905 Kaempff accepted the command of the ship “Hamburg” on the express wish of the emperor, who used the “Hamburg” after March 23, 1905 for state visits during a trip in the mediterranean.

At the beginning of his career Johannes Dürrstein worked with wholesaler Ludwig & Fries; in 1874, however, he established his own business together with his brother Friedrich. The company traded as Dürrstein & Co. of Glashütte and sold Swiss products as well as watches by A. Lange & Söhne. Nearly 20 years later, in 1893, Dürrstein founded the "Uhrenfabrik Union".
The watches produced in this manufactory were of outstanding quality and could be made to order with high value complications of all kinds. The range included pocket chronometers, tourbillons and perpetual calendars and usually came with a rating certificate from the Hamburg Observatory. Dürrstein always tried to satisfy the universally strong demand for high quality timepieces and mainly used premium Swiss movements which he bought and cased before selling them to his customers.