German Swiss gold complicated special edition watch Circa 1885

Rose gold complicated astronomical watch by Dürrstein & Co
–
A heavy, exquisite German/Swiss 18 Carat rose gold hunting cased minute repeating split seconds chronograph astronomical pocket watch with a 30 minute counter, perpetual calendar and moon phases, circa 1885. Glazed highly complicated bridge movement, lever escapement, ébauche by Louis Audemars, gold screw compensation balance, extremely finely mirror polished steel chronograph parts, a very finely polished and bevelled split seconds mechanism with a separate column wheel. White enamel dial with black Arabic hours, red Arabic five minute numerals, a 30 minute counter combined with the months and leap year at 12 o’clock, auxiliary seconds combined with a cobalt blue enamel moon phase disc with inlaid golden stars and moon at 6 o ‘clock, subsidiary dials for the days of the week on the left and the date on the right. Plain Louis XV case, finely engraved with monogram GA, the inner lid is stamped with the Dürrstein hallmark, D in a star, two pushers for the split seconds chronograph and a slide for the minute repeater are set in the case band at 11 and 1 o’clock. Case numbered.
–
Diameter 58 mm
–
Weight: 199 g
–
Signed: Johannes Dürrstein & Co Glashütte & Dresden – Louis Audemars Les Brassus
–
This piece is part of a special edition of complicated watches that were produced for the German market in the late 19th century.
–
Johannes Dürrstein was born on August 22nd, 1845 in Niederrad and died on May 7th, 1901. Dürrstein grew up in a middle-class family and completed a commercial apprenticeship at the Frankfurt watch wholesaler Ludwig & Fries. He was a German entrepreneur and together with his brother Friedrich, he established his own business in 1874. He repeatedly travelled to Switzerland on business and got to know the important watch manufacturers in the country. The company traded as Dürrstein & Co 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.
–
Louis Audemars and Audemars Piguet are most likely to have been the main suppliers of ébauches to Dürrstein. Between 1895 and 1912 Dürrstein purchased 35 of their movements, most of them with interesting complications.
–
Louis Audemars & Cie was founded in 1811 by Louis-Benjamin Audemars in the hamlet of Le Crêt Meylan near Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux, Switzerland. Audemars married his first wife, Julie LeCoultre, laying the foundation for the close friendship between the two companies. He had 15 children, three of them died and four daughters and eight sons remained. Louis-Benjamin and his sons specialized in producing ébauches, they made high quality watch movements and precision complications such as repeater and chronograph mechanisms. Both design and production were carried out in house. Their products were mostly entirely hand made and are considered among the finest the world has ever seen. The craftsmanship was second to none at the time and even Breguet recognized this exceptional quality by listing the Audemars movement number next to his own in the cases, there was no greater compliment than that. At the time watchmakers in the region made unbranded movements which they sold to users in Geneva and actually all over Europe. There the movements would be fitted with dials and cases and sold under the brand or name of the purchaser, therefore a timepiece of the period made in France, Germany, Russia or England might actually contain, and very often did, a movement from the Vallée de Joux. Louis-Benjamin’s ambition was to make complete cased watches signed with his own name. He never lived to achieve his goal because he died in 1833 at the age of 51. However, his sons did. They decided to train with different watchmakers and learn all the different aspects of the craft. Around 1850 they returned home and began using their combined knowledge to create their own brand. At the time manual work still played a decisive role in the production. However, development did not favour them. Around 1840 Vacheron & Constantin were the first to equip their factory with production machinery, closely followed by LeCoultre and other companies. The new machines worked as well as the craftsmen but three times as fast, which of course reduced the purchasing price of the watches considerably. To counter this development, the Audemars’ decided to create watches which could not be made by machines, this is where they began making complicated watches and no other company but Audemars was able to reach such perfect coordination of design, precision and production. Theirs was the very first enterprise in the region of the Vallée de Joux to make complete watches from start to finish and signed with their own name. Unfortunately, they were much better watchmakers than businessmen and the company was bankrupt and liquidated in 1885.