German silver deck chronometer with 54h power reserve Circa 1890

Silver open faced deck watch by Adolf Kittel
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An important and extremely rare German silver open faced 54 hour power reserve deck chronometer, circa 1890. ¾ Plate movement, Stübner’s pivoted detent escapement with short Glashütte detent, free sprung helical balance spring, heavy gold screw chronometer balance. White enamel dial with Roman hours, outer minute divisions, sunk subsidiary seconds at 3 o’clock and power reserve indication at 9. Plain silver case.
Case numbered, movement signed and numbered, case and movement with matching numbers.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Weight: 163 g
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Signed: A Kittel Altona
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A chronometer of very similar design is illustrated and described in “Klassik Uhren, Glashütte damals, Teil II” by Waldemar Becker, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, Edition 3/92, Munich 1992, p. 15. However, the movement of that watch No. 303 (which bears the signature A. Kittel Altona on the dial) was made by Fridolin Stübner in Glashütte and has been signed accordingly. The present chronometer probably came from the property of Adolf Kittel’s grandson.
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Adolf Kittel was born in 1845 in Aurich and later went to Altona. In 1877 several of his clocks had already been awarded prizes in Hamburg and Altona. They also regularly took part in the naval observatory’s chronometer tests. Kittel’s specialities were, for example, chronometers without fusee, a new chronometer escapement and an auxiliary mechanism to balance temperature variations. For pendulum clocks Kittel designed his own free escapement and a barometer compensation for air pressure changes, which was fitted to the pendulum. Kittel also delivered a number of astronomical pendulum clocks to German and foreign observatories. At the industrial exhibition 1889 in Hamburg he exhibited an astronomical pendulum clock which was later owned by the Hamburg observatory (Kittel No. 25). Kittel closed his workshop in Altona in 1911 and sold his remaining chronometers with help from Schorr. However, during the war and the recession afterwards his savings were soon eaten up and in 1919 he moved back to Aurich to live with his family. Kittel’s economic situation as well as his health kept deteriorating and he died on October 4th, 1921.
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Fridolin Stübner was the most important maker of chronometers in Glashütte. Herkner remarks: “Lang’s continued success at the important chronometer tests of the Hamburg observatory began with the marine chronometers regulated by Fridolin Stübner “.