Important German 18K rose gold quality 1A lever watch Circa 1895

Rose gold complicated watch by A. Lange & Söhne
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An important, very fine and extremely rare 18 carat rose gold hunting cased minute repeating quality 1A Glashütte pocket watch with perpetual calendar and moon phases, circa 1895. Sold to the J. Schumacher company, Crefeld at a special price on March 9th, 1895, for 2,300 marks. Glazed ¾ Plate movement, screwed gold chatons, two hammers, two gongs, a lever escapement, gold screw compensation balance, very finely engraved balance cock, index spring fine adjusting device, gold lever and escape wheel, and a chatoned diamond endstone on the balance. The gold cuvette with dedication engraving: Albert Ebeling Crefeld 3. Juni 1860. White enamel dial with black Arabic Empire hours, outer minute divisions, red Arabic five-minute numerals, subsidiary seconds with a concentric cobalt blue enamelled moon phase disc showing inlaid golden stars and moon at 6 o’clock, an inserted day, date and month indicator with leap year compensation, gold Louis XIV hands. A polished Louis XV case. Dial signed, case and movement signed and numbered, case and movement with matching numbers. Comes with the original presentation box, original certificate, an Extract from the Archives, a rating certificate of the Royal University Observatory in Leipzig and the original sales receipt.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Weight: 195 g
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Signed: A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte B/Dresden
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Only eight examples of these highly complicated watches were produced by A. Lange & Söhne.
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Among the existing eight pocket watches with minute repeaters and perpetual calendars, this is the only one to feature a register of the Royal University Observatory in Leipzig. The available rating certificate of the Royal University Observatory in Leipzig was signed by Professor Dr E. H. Bruns (1848-1919). A student of councillor Professor W. Foerster in Berlin, Bruns, had become well-known for his testing of watches and clocks and was in 1882 appointed director of the Royal University Observatory in Leipzig. He systemized the tests his predecessor C.C. Bruns (1810-1881) had introduced from 1863 on. Those tests continued to be conducted until the destruction of the observatory in 1943. All significant companies in Glashütte submitted their watches for ratings.
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In December 2020 this watch was completely serviced at Lange Uhren GmbH for the sum of 21,291.80 euros.
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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.