German silver jumping half seconds deck chronometer Circa 1906

Silver deck chronometer by A. Lange & Söhne
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A rare silver open faced half seconds beating Glashütte deck chronometer of the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine, circa 1906. Sold for 275 marks to the Imperial Hydrographical Institute in Pola in 1906. 2/3 Plate movement, pivoted detent escapement, nickel steel screw compensation balance, free-sprung blued helical balance spring. Matt silvered dial with Roman hours, outer minute divisions and sunk subsidiary seconds. An engine-turned case back, polished bezels, gold hinges.
Dial signed, case numbered, movement signed and numbered, movement and case with matching numbers.
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Diameter: 62 mm
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Weight: 184 g
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Signed: A. Lange & Söhne B/Dresden
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A total of only 41 pieces were produced by A. Lange & Söhne.
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Pocket chronometers with a barrel. Pocket chronometers are considered to be the precursors to deck watches. A. Lange & Söhne originally produced pocket chronometers with going barrels for scientific purposes. Often set in wooden boxes, they were to be used as deck chronometers on ships. Following this style the watches were designed with 14,400 alternations per hour, as a result, the second hand was able to jump every half second. The watches all have pivoted detent escapements, which were designed in two different styles: one version was the chronometer escapement according to Berthoud and the other the escapement according to Julius Grossmann, which had an additional safety lever to prevent the escapement wheel from going on once the balance had been taken out.
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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.