German gold repeater with 1st quality movement Circa 1884

Gold lever watch with chronograph split seconds
–
Exceptionally rare German, one of three examples made, large and heavy, 18 Carat red gold pocket watch, circa 1884. Minute repeating, a keyless, full hunter cased pocket watch with precision balance, Lange double chronograph system with single push piece for all four functions via one column wheel and split seconds callipers on the dial side. Accompanied by the Extract from the Archives. Made in 1884, sold on September 30, 1884, for 1,750 Marks. A stepped Louis XV, massive, solid, polished case, chronograph button at 12 o’clock governing all four functions. Hinged gold cuvette and glazed gold rimmed cover to view the movement.
–
White enamel dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions concentric with fifths of second chronograph divisions, outermost Arabic five second numerals, subsidiary seconds. Louis XV gold hour and minute hands, blued steel chronograph hands. German silver movement, 1st Quality, 25 jewels in screwed gold chatons, straight line lever escapement with a gold fork and escape wheel, Lange precision bi metallic compensation balance cut in the manner of Guillaume, gold temperature adjustment screws, blued steel Breguet balance spring with a terminal curve, foliate engraved cock, diamond end stone, index regulator, a visible mechanism for the four function chronograph, the split seconds callipers on the dial side, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band.
Dial, case, cuvette and movement signed.
–
Diameter: 58 mm
–
Signed: A. Lange & Söhne  Glashütte B/Dresden
–
The dial is slightly scratched.
–
The present watch can be counted amongst the rarest of Lange & Söhne watches. Only three examples with minute repeating and double chronograph were made, the earliest, No. 13405, made in 1880, the present watch, No. 16977, made in 1884, and the last, No. 18128, made in 1885. It is also one of only four known watches in the entire Lange & Söhne production where the split seconds callipers are placed on the dial side of the movement.
–
Lange Double-Chronograph System with Single Push-Piece Lange & Söhne is one of the few manufacturers to have produced a double chronograph with a single push-piece governing all four functions via one column wheel. The first pressure starts both hands together, the second stops the flyback, the third stops the chronograph hand and the fourth zeroes them together. The stopping and zeroing of the hands are by the callipers used in all split seconds chronographs. However, unlike the usual split seconds chronograph, the double chronograph cannot take intermediary times.
Literature: Reinhard Meis, A. Lange & Söhne, The Watchmakers of Dresden, 1997, p.248 & p. 263.