German pocket watch with 52.5 minute carousel regulator Circa 1905

Gold heavy Glashütte pocket watch by A. Lange & Söhne
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A rare and heavy gentleman’s Glashütte pocket watch with 52.5 minute carousel regulator, circa 1905. With extract from the archives of the watch museum Glashuette.
Polished 18-carat gold case. Enamel dial with radial Arabic numerals, outer minutes track, subsidiary dial for the seconds, and spade hands. Frosted, gilt 2/3 plate movement, D.R.G.M. 121267, gold screw compensation balance. Dial and movement signed.
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Diameter: 57 mm
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Weight: 167 g
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Signed: A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte B/Dresden
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Reinhard Reichel, director of the watch museum Glashütte, observes: “We know of four watches with carousels by A. Lange & Söhne, which are not accounted for in any of the sales records. This is without doubt an A. Lange & Söhne carousel watch”. During our 85th auction we sold one of the four known carrousel watches by A. Lange & Söhne as lot 25 – even then there were no records found in the Lange sales books, as confirmed at the time by the director of the Glashütte watch museum, Reinhard Reichel. A nearly identical carousel watch (no. 45288) is illustrated and described in “A. Lange & Söhne” by Reinhard Meis, Munich 2011, p. 180ff. Regleur Kurt Herkner’s confidence in carousel watches: “Carousel watches were created by different makers mainly in England and featured small and light balances. The test results, however, were no better than that of the usual Glashütte pocket watches. The Lange carousel watches used larger Glashütte balances with a 16 mm diameter, a size that was just possible in this kind of construction. These watches performed much better than the usual Glashütte lever watches. The large oscillation of the heavy balance inspired immediate confidence in the regleur’s and make them feel that the construction was easy to regulate. […] All individual parts must be produced with great skill and have to be of superior quality to ensure that the interaction between the parts works well and reliably and can be regulated easily for many years. Only watches fitted with a tourbillon are capable of out-performing the Lange watches of this type”.