A. Lange & Söhne. A very fine and rare 18K gold hunter case dead beat centre seconds keyless lever watch with original certificate and box
Lot 384

A. Lange & Söhne. A very fine and rare 18K gold hunter case dead beat centre seconds keyless lever watch with original certificate and box

SIGNED A. LANGE & SÖHNE, GLASHÜTTE B/DRESDEN, NO. 27'355, RETAILED BY HOFFMANN Y ZENTNER, CORRIENTES, MANUFACTURED IN 1888

Closed10 November 2014

Price Realised

CHF 23,750

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A. Lange & Söhne. A very fine and rare 18K gold hunter case dead beat centre seconds keyless lever watch with original certificate and box
Signed A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte B/Dresden, No. 27'355, retailed by Hoffmann y Zentner, Corrientes, manufactured in 1888
Cal. 19''' Quality 1A three-quarter plate fully jewelled gilt-finished lever movement, blued steel balance spring with gold poising screws, screwed gold chatons, finely engraved balance cock with diamond endstone for the balance, swan neck regulator, gold cuvette, white enamel dial, Roman numerals, outer railway minute divisions, dead beat centre seconds, sunk subsidiary seconds, engine-turned circular Jürgensen case, engraved initials PD to the front, case signed and numbered by maker, cuvette signed by maker and retailer and numbered, dial signed by maker, movement signed by retailer and numbered
52.5 mm. diam.

Specialist note

With A. Lange & Söhne original Certificate in English and German, original fitted presentation box stamped Hoffmann y Zentner containing a spare main spring and two spare crystals. Furthermore delivered with A. Lange & Söhne Certificate and copy of the registers confirming that the present watch was sold on 2 December 1888 to Fa. Hoffmann & Zentner, Corrientes, Argentina, for the amount of 580 Mark.

This watch is a very fine example of one of A. Lange & Söhne's dead beat jumping seconds watches, preserved in very attractive, original overall condition. The rarity is enhanced by the unusual retailer signature, Hoffmann & Zentner in Corrientes, Argentina, found not only on the cuvette and movement of the watch but also on the cover of the presentation box supplied by A. Lange & Söhne.

As for Ferdinand Adolf Lange the readability of the small constant seconds for certain, most likely scientific, purposes wasn't a satisfactory solution, he developed already in the mid-1860s a "jumping seconds" mechanism. This initial system was used in an exceedingly small number of watches only. Ferdinand Adolf Lange's "seconde morte" was first introduced as one of Emil Lange's masterpieces and then improved by Richard Lange with the direct transfer of the jumping seconds from the centre.

The designation "dead seconds" or "Seconde Morte" in French comes from the fact that the second hand stops on each position while moving forward.

1877, some 100 years after Jean-Moise Pouzait's development of the first "Seconde Morte" system, A. Lange & Söhne in Glashütte patented a jumping seconds mechanism, further developed by Richard Lange with only one going barrel, as Reich Patent no. 182 on 3 August 1877.

For the illustration of a comparable movement, no. 26'005, see A. Lange & Söhne. Eine Uhrmacherdynastie aus Dresden by Reinhard Meis, Band II, p. 222, pl. 716a.