Rare Swedish silver open faced deck chronometer Circa 1905

Silver lever with 24h indicator and carousel by Victor Kullberg
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A rare Swedish silver open faced deck chronometer with 24-hour indicator and 52½ minute carousel, circa 1905. Frosted gilt 2/3 plate movement, engraved 4 Diplomas of Honour, ten Gold Medals Awarded, Grand Prix Paris 1900, screwed gold chatons, English lever escapement, heavy gold screwed chronometer balance, free-sprung blued balance spring, chatoned diamond endstone on balance. White enamel dial with radial Arabic numerals, 24-hour indicator, auxiliary seconds and blued Breguet hands. Plain, tiered case, gold crown and hinge, casemaker’s punch mark FT for Frederick Thoms. Dial and movement signed.
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Diameter: 58 mm
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Weight: 167 g
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Signed: Victor Kullberg London
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Victor Kullberg,
Swedish watchmaker was born at Visby on the island of Gothland, Sweden in 1824 and was apprenticed to a chronometer maker in 1840. On the completion of his training, he was employed by Louis Urban Jürgensen in Copenhagen but was attracted to Britain at the time of the 1851 Exhibition. In Britain, he remained as a maker of marine and pocket chronometers to which he brought several innovations. From 1860 onwards, thanks to the high quality of his machines and the efficiency of his new forms of auxiliary compensation, he consistently scored ratings in chronometrical competitions throughout the world and was awarded numerous gold and silver medals. With international trade and reputation he was appointed chronometer maker to the Swedish and Norwegian navies in 1874 and, about a machine entered for the Greenwich trials of 1882, the Astronomer Royal reported that it was ‘the finest chronometer they had ever had on trial’. Although unmarried, Kullberg had two sons. On their father’s death, 7 July 1890, they jointly inherited the business with his nephew Peter John Wennerstrom. After the death of the nephews, Wennerstrom and his son bought out the other interests in the business. Subsequently, it was continued by Sanfrid Lindquist and survived until the 2nd World War during which its premises were destroyed.