104th Auction
2021/5/22
Lot 25
Franz LideckeNormalzeit
An exquisite precision regulator with Riefler pendulum type J No. 1770, DRP 100870
Sold
This is a regulator clock of supreme quality which spent its life in service to civil timekeeping; the high standards of the maker are reflected in many details of precision work, e.g., a fully chatoned movement in a heavy seat, a lateral impulse to the Graham lever with inserted stones in the manner of Strasser und Rohde in Glashütte, the lateral weight which protects the Riefler pendulum from outside effects. The beautiful case is also inspired by the precision clocks from Glashütte – the finishing is perfectly executed and the clock is in absolutely magnificent condition.
As the story has been handed down through the family, this precision pendulum clock was the only instrument they were able to salvage from the workshop after the devastating air raid on Bremerhaven in 1944.
Franz Lidecke (1871-1961) learned his trade from his father and attended the master’s class at the German watch- and clockmaking school in Glashütte in 1893/1894; afterwards he travelled to England, where he worked with clockmaker H. J. Drake in Tunbridge Wells and possibly also with Thomas Mercer. In 1901 Franz Lidecke took over his father’s business and from 1898 to 1914submitted 125 chronometers for testing, some of them more than once. The Imperial Navy ordered 68 chronometers for a sum of 55,700 reichsmark. Lidecke purchased two complete and finished chronometers from Kullberg. His main suppliers, however, were the companies Mercer, who sent a large number of ebauches to Geestemünde, and Paul Stübner’s workshop in Glashütte. He ordered ebauches, balances, mainsprings, jewels, hands and dials from England. According to Lidecke himself, a quarter of his chronometers were of German origin.
Source: Oestmann, Günther: Auf dem Weg zum "Deutschen Chronometer": Die Einführung von Präzisionszeitmessern bei der deutschen Handels- und Kriegsmarine bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg (the way to the "German chronometer": the first precision timepieces for the German navy before World War I). (Deutsche Maritime Studien, 21), Bremerhaven 2012, pages 77 + 78.