Live Auction 1376Important Watches
Kittel. A rare and unusual silver openface two days keyless deck chronometer with power reserve
Lot 242

Kittel. A rare and unusual silver openface two days keyless deck chronometer with power reserve

SIGNED A. KITTEL, ALTONA, NO. 234, CIRCA 1900

Closed15 November 2010

Price Realised

CHF 20,000

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Kittel. A rare and unusual silver openface two days keyless deck chronometer with power reserve
Signed A. Kittel, Altona, No. 234, circa 1900
Three quarter plate gilt-finished movement, pivoted detent escapement, large bimetallic compensation balance with gold poising screws, free sprung blued steel helical hairspring, diamond endstone, finely engraved balance cock and foot, silver cuvette, white enamel dial, Roman numerals, two sunk subsidiary dials for 52 hours power reserve and constant seconds, large circular case, hinged back engraved U.S.C. & G.S. No. 234, gold hinges, case and cuvette numbered and stamped F.E. St. for F. Ehehalt, Stuttgart, dial with hand-etched 234 and U.S.C. + G.S., movement signed and numbered
57.5 mm. diam.

Specialist note

Adolf Kittel (1845-1921) was one of Germany's foremost maker of pendulum clocks and pocket and marine chronometers which regularly exceeded at Observatory trials. He was the watchmaker of confidence of the Hamburg Observatory which owned several of his clocks and chronometers. Kittel became the first teacher at the Altona Horological School (1878-88), later known as the Hamburg Horological School.

The engraved inscription "U.S.C. & G.S." probably stands for "U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey", now National Geodetic Survey, a United States Federal Agency, amongst others in charge of mapping and charting and a large number of applications of science and engineering.