103rd Auction

2020/11/7

Lot 85

A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte B/Dresden, Movement No. 82019, Case No. 82019, 60 mm, 187 g, circa 1925
An extremely rare and historical interesting Glashuette hunting case minute repeating watch with "Grande / Petite Sonnerie" self strike, made in quality 1A with Lange extract from the archives - present of A. Hitler to H. Göring to Christmas 1934
Case: 18k gold, case design "Louis XV", dedication engraving. Dial: enamel. Movm.: 3/4 plate movement, 2 hammers / 2 gongs, 2 barrels, gold screw compensation balance.
This large and heavy hunter watch is one of only four (!) pocket watches to come with grande and petite sonnerie, which makes it one of the rarest pieces ever created by Lange & Söhne.
Christian Pfeiffer-Belli discusses the watch and its history:
The last one of those four watches is this hunter watch in a Louis XV case, which is on offer here; at the time (1925) its price came to 4,000 mark. According to the Lange books, the buyer was the concessionaire Otto Pohland in Chemnitz, who eventually sold the watch back to Lange & Söhne. Unfortunately the books record neither the reason for the resale nor its price. The watch was then sold again with a hunter case engraved with Hermann Göring’s coat of arms, for a price of 2,475 mark minus a 10% discount. The inside cover is engraved "In herzlicher Freundschaft zum Weihnachtsfest 1934 A. Hitler" (in sincere friendship, Christmas 1934 A. Hitler). The watch was bought by the watch store A. Lünser in Berlin; according to W. Becker’s list in "Klassik Uhren, Glashütte damals XXII" the company sold one of approximately 90 A. Lange watches to the Reichskanzlei. The price means that the original owner from Chemnitz must have lost money, since he bought the watch at 4,000 mark. I am also asking myself where the movements came from, a silver movement supposedly supplied by L.E. Piguet – but LeCoultre seems also possible. Delivered as a "blanc" (ebauche) and then finished in Glashütte or a complete version with Glashütte escapement and finished plates? "A. Lange & Söhne, eine Uhrendynastie aus Dresden" by R. Meiss dating from 2011 shows excellent illustrations on pages 294/295. A beautiful under-dial mechanism is also present. A Geneva auction house sold this watch on May 14, 2006 with an estimate of 500,000 – 600,000 Swiss francs and a final result of 760,900 Swiss francs including the surcharge. I am very curious to see the price the watch will now achieve during the upcoming November auction.
For additional information on this timepiece, please look at the "News" on our website: uhren-muser.de/news

Sold

estimated
90.000250.000 €
Price realized
156.300 €