German gold “seconde morte” Glashütte watch Circa 1884

Hunting cased pocket watch by A. Lange & Söhne
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An important German Glashütte hunting cased pocket watch with independent stoppable jumping seconds mechanism “seconde morte”, circa 1884. Manufactured in quality 1A, sold on August 26h, 1884 to Dr. B. Reis, Trier for 733,50 Marks, formerly with rating certificate of the observatory Leipzig – with Lange extract from the archives.
18 Carat gold engraved monogrammed case, white signed enamel dial with red and black Arabic numerals, subsidiary dial, jumping center for the seconds and decorative gold hands. 3/4 Plate movement, applied “seconde morte” mechanism and a large gold screwed compensation balance.
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Diameter: 54 mm
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Weight: 134 g
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Signed: A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte B/Dresden
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According to Martin Huber’s “Die Lange-Liste”, this is the only lever chronometer with a “seconde morte” mechanism ever manufactured by A. Lange & Söhne.
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Jumping seconds mechanism or “seconde morte”
Lange felt that the readability of the jumping auxiliary seconds was not satisfactory in a pocket watch, so he started following another course. By 1867 he had designed a mechanism which allowed an independent large central seconds hand to jump every second. The hand had a stop device but could not be reset to zero. In 1877 his sons filed a patent for a slightly modified version of A. Lange’s mechanism (no. 182). This seconds mechanism on a 3/4 plate created a precision watch which had the indication system of an astronomical pendulum clock but was portable.