German chronograph with 30 minute counter Circa 1898

Rose gold lever chronograph  
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A very fine 18 carat gold open faced quality 1A lever Glashütte pocket watch with chronograph and 30 minute counter, circa 1898. Sold for 895 marks to Huber Frères in Constantinople on March 31st, 1898. ¾ Plate movement, lever escapement, gold screw compensation balance. White enamel dial with black Arabic hours, red Arabic five minute numerals, sunk subsidiary seconds at 3 o’clock and a 30 minute counter at 9. Plain case, an applied gold monogram on the back. Dial signed, case numbered, movement signed and numbered, case and movement with matching numbers. Comes with the original presentation box, an Extract from the Archives and an original blank certificate.
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Weight: 110 g
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Signed: A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte B/Dresden
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In the early 1870s, Richard Lange (1845-1932) started designing a new chronograph which had the mechanism above the train, so that the mechanism could be attached to a ‘normal’ watch movement. The upper seconds bearing received a new bridge and acted as the bearing for the clutch lever. A central chrono wheel with an upper steel bridge was fed through the minute wheel and all levers and springs were highly ground and bevelled. The mechanism was operated by a pusher in the crown, with the sequence being started, stopped and reset. The most basic version only had one chronograph hand, chronographs with minute counters were much more complicated.
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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.