Swiss repeater with carillon and grande sonnerie Circa 1900

Hunting cased minute repeater with carillon and grande sonnerie by Zenith
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A Swiss 14-carat gold full hunter minute repeater with carillon and grande sonnerie, circa 1900. Distributed by Dürrstein & Co, Dresden. Highly complicated Swiss movement with grand sonnerie, self strike on three gongs with three hammers, trip minute repeater with carillon, 30 jewels, blued steel Breguet spring, index regulator, Silence/Sonnerie switch on the bezel, bimetallic compensation balance with screwed gold weights. White enamel dial, Arabic numerals, decentral seconds and gold Louis XV hands. Heavy case with large engraved monogram to the front, shaped hinges. Comes with the original box of Zenith.
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Diameter: 56 mm
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Weight: 120 g
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Signed: Zenith
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The present watch is a highly collectable, minute repeating grande sonnerie watch with a three-gong carillon with three stacked hammers, but without a petite sonnerie. The work was built by Zenith with the Cesar Racine patent and terminated by the Dresden company Dürrstein and sold on the German market.
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Johannes Dürrstein founded the watch distribution company Dürrstein & Co in Dresden in 1874 and built a trading network in Europe. Already in 1874, he took over the exclusive distribution of watches by Adolph Lange in Glashütte. In 1893 Johannes Dürrstein founded the ‘Uhrenfabrik Union, Glashütte i.S.’ manufactory to offer cheaper watches on the market. After Dürrsteins death in 1901 took over first his brothers and later his widow; in the big depression after ww1 1926, the enterprise went bankrupt.