Extremely rare German deck watch with power reserve Circa 1932

Silver open faced lever chronometer by A. Lange & Söhne
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The largest ever-produced silver open faced lever Glashütte chronometer deck watch with a 40 hour power reserve, circa 1932. Sold on November 6th, 1941 to the Ernst Mertens company in Cologne for the sum of 525 Marks. ¾ Plate movement, a large gold Guillaume screw compensation balance (∅ 21 mm) with 18 gold screws. Silvered dial with Arabic hours, outer minute divisions, power reserve indicator at 9 o’clock and subsidiary seconds at 3 o’clock. Plain case. Dial signed, case numbered, movement signed and numbered, case and movement with matching numbers. Comes with an Extract from the Archives.
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Diameter: 70 mm
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Weight: 270 g
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Signed: A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte B/Dresden
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This is one of only two deck watches of this size produced by Lange & Söhne and it has a particularly interesting and long history. According to the Lange & Söhne records, the movement, which was originally marked as No. 47663, was handed over to Fridolin Stübner ‘for safekeeping’ in 1906. Stübner most likely used it for adjustment tests. Reinhard Reichel, director of the watch and clock museum in Glashütte writes: “Stübner’s experiments can be identified among other things from the two-part anchor with counterweight and from the unusual number and the arrangement of the disc weights and adjustment weights on the balance wheel.” Its history makes this a truly unique movement. While still bearing No. 47633 underneath the dial, it was fitted in 1932 with a suitable case and received the new number 82509. Eventually, ten years later, this important piece was sold to Cologne.
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Ferdinand Adolph Lange was the founder of A. Lange & Söhne. He was born in 1815 as the son of Johann Samuel Lange. Early in life, his parents separated and he was adopted by a foster family. Luckily this family offered him a chance at proper education and in 1829, he joined the Technical University of Dresden. Lange’s master was Christian Friedrich Gutkaes, the maker of the famous five-minute clock in the Dresden Opera House and the court watchmaker later on. Lange finished his apprenticeship with honours and went on to work with Gutkaes as his assistant for more than two years. In 1837, Lange decided he wanted to learn the watchmaking craft from the best of the time and this decision took him to Paris, Switzerland and England. He spent four years with the master watchmaker Winnerl, a student of Breguet, in Paris. Lange returned to Dresden in 1841 and took over his now father-in-law Gutkaes’ business in 1842. He had the ambition to bring prosperity to the once rich, now unfortunate Erzgebirge region, Glashütte, he wanted to build a watchmaking industry and create jobs. He received funding from the high council of Saxony and on December 7th, 1845, Ferdinand Adolph Lange founded A. Lange & Cie. He started with fifteen young men who were obliged to work with him for at least five years and following Lange encouraged his apprentices to found their own specialized firms in Switzerland. He set up a watchmaking cluster in the region along with his colleagues Julius Assmann, Adolf Schneider and Moritz Grossmann. At the time, there was a specialist for every part, producing individual pieces of the highest quality. Ferdinand Adolph developed numerous mechanisms, from the remontoir to dead-seconds and repeaters and he introduced the metric system to watchmaking. Eventually, it took Glashütte watchmaking 20 years to develop. After two successful decades and as the mayor of Glashütte Ferdinand Adolph Lange retired in 1868. He enjoyed his spacious house built adjacent to the factory, which today serves as the headquarters of the modern A. Lange & Söhne. He gave the reigns of his legacy to his sons Richard and Emil Lange, subsequently, the company’s name was changed from A. Lange & Cie to A. Lange & Söhne. Under their management A. Lange & Söhne expanded tremendously. Ferdinand Adolph Lange died in 1875.