Swiss platinum minute repeating seconds chronograph Circa 1915

Platinum repeating split split second chronograph with 30 min. register
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An elegant, heavy Swiss platinum minute repeating chronograph with 30 minute register, circa 1915. Retailed by J.E. Caldwell & Co., Philadelphia, USA. Rhodium plated movement, ‘fausses côtes’ decoration, blued Breguet hairspring with end curve, 2 hammers/2 gongs, very fine steel chronograph parts, short toothed straight lever escapement, large gold crewed compensation balance, 30 minute register, 38 jewels. Frosted silver plated dial, black Arabic numerals and outer minute ring with 1/5 second division. Lépine case, smooth polished, stamped cuvette, case maker’s mark ‘AW’ (Albert Wittnauer & Cie. SA, Geneva, Switzerland).
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Diameter: 46 mm
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Weight: 98 g
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Signed: H.R. Ekegrén made by Edouard Koehn Geneva Switzerland
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Edouard Koehn (1839-1908) was born in Germany and studied at the watchmaking school in Geneva. Then he started as a simple watchmaker with Patek Philippe and later became director. In 1891 Edouard Koehn acquired H.R. Ekegrén. The quality awareness that he acquired during his many years at Patek Philippe was later reflected in his own products designed and manufactured by him.
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Henri Robert Ekegrén was born in 1823, Copenhagen, the son of watchmaker Daniel Ekegrén. He worked for Jules-Frédéric Jürgensen, Henri Golay, Joseph Thaddeus Winnerl and Adolph Lange, before he finally became self employed in Geneva. In 1857 he founded the company Ekegrén & Westermann together with his business partner Ferdinand Westermann. In 1862 Westermann left the company for reasons of age, since then Ekegrén did business under the names H.R. Ekegrén. He won several gold medals in various world exhibitions and also won the chronometer competition in Geneva a few times. The watches of the famous chronometer makers were the finest Geneva watches of that time.
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In 1891, Henri Robert Ekegrén sold his business to E. Koehn, but continued to work in the firm until his death in 1896. Koehn and Ekegrén shared the passion for absolute high quality watches. The two watchmakers united their lifelong uncompromising quest to produce only the finest and finest quality watches. In Ekegrén Koehn found an adequate partner and managed to outperform the quality of his former employer Patek Philippe. Koehn, meanwhile a celebrated watchmaker himself, signed the best watches (as for the present watch) with H.R. Ekegrén. The company also supplied watches to various other companies such as Tiffany & Co.