Lot 26

A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte bei Dresden, Movement No. 80936, Case No. 80936, 62 mm, 196 g, circa 1919
An important, extremely rare Glashuette "1/2 seconds chronometer" with short seesaw in best quality with blued helical balance spring and 32h power reserve indicator, sold in 1919 for the sum of 826 Marks
Case: silver. Dial: silvered. Movm.: 3/4 plate movement, gold screw compensation balance.
Pocket chronometers with barrel
Pocket chronometers are considered to be the precursors to deck watches. Lange & Soehne originally produced pocket chronometers with going barrels for scientific purposes. Often set in wooden boxes, they were to be used as deck chronometers on ships. Following this style the watches were designed with 14,400 alternations per hour; as a result the second hand was able to jump every half second. The watches all have pivoted detent escapements, which were designed in two different styles: one version was the chronometer escapement according to Berthoud, the other the escapement according to Julius Grossmann, which had an additional safety lever to prevent the escapement wheel from going on once the balance had been taken out.