Historically interesting German gold repeating lever Circa 1925

Gold full hunter by A. Lange & Söhne
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An extremely rare and historically interesting 18 carat gold hunting cased minute repeating grande and petite sonnerie self-strike quality 1A Glashütte lever pocket watch, circa 1925. A Christmas present of A. Hitler to H. Göring in 1934. ¾ Plate movement, two hammers, two gongs, two barrels, gold screw compensation balance. White enamel dial with Arabic hours, outer minute divisions and sunk subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock. Plain, stepped Louis XV case, Hermann Göring’s coat of arms on the front, a dedication engraving on the inside. 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: 60 mm
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Weight: 187 g
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Signed: A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte B/Dresden
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This large and heavy hunter watch is one of only four timepieces to come with grande and petite sonnerie, making it one of the rarest pieces created by Lange & Söhne.
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Christian Pfeiffer-Belli discusses the watch and its history: “The last one of those four watches is this hunter watch in a Louis XV case, which is on offer here, at the time (1925) its price came to 4,000 mark. According to the Lange books, the buyer was the concessionaire Otto Pohland in Chemnitz, who eventually sold the watch back to Lange & Söhne. Unfortunately, the books record neither the reason for the resale nor its price. The watch was then sold again with a hunter case engraved with Hermann Göring’s coat of arms, for a price of 2,475 mark minus a 10% discount. The inside cover is engraved ‘In herzlicher Freundschaft zum Weihnachtsfest 1934 A. Hitler’ (in sincere friendship Christmas 1934 A. Hitler). The watch was bought by watch store A. Lünser in Berlin. According to W. Becker’s list in ‘Klassik Uhren, Glashütte damals XXII’ the company sold one of approximately 90 A. Lange watches to the Reichskanzlei. The price means that the original owner from Chemnitz must have lost money since he bought the watch for 4,000 mark. I am also asking myself where the movements came from, a silver movement supposedly supplied by L.E. Piguet – but LeCoultre seems also possible. Delivered as a ‘blanc’ (ebauche) and then finished in Glashütte or a complete version with Glashütte escapement and finished plates? “A. Lange & Söhne, eine Uhr Dynastie aus Dresden” by R. Meiss dating from 2011 shows excellent illustrations on pages 294/295. A beautiful under-dial mechanism is also present. A Geneva auction house sold this watch on May 14, 2006 with an estimate of 500,000 – 600,000 Swiss francs and a final result of 760,900 Swiss francs including the surcharge. I am very curious to see the price the watch will now achieve during the upcoming November auction.”
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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. In 1948, the post-war Soviet administration nationalized the company’s property and the Lange brand ceased to exist. However, in December 1990, following German reunification, the founder’s great-grandson Walter Lange, together with watch industry executive Günter Blümlein, restored the company with the assistance of several Swiss watch manufacturers, including the International Watch Company (IWC) and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Again operating from Glashütte, the company presented its first range of wristwatches in 1994. Today, A. Lange & Söhne wristwatches are sold globally. Lange, like IWC, is now a member of the Richemont group.