101st Auction
2019/11/16
Lot 374
Johannes Dürrstein & Co., Glashütte/Dresden / Louis Audemars, Les Brassus, Case No. 48355, 58 mm, 199 g, circa 1885
A heavy, astronomical minute repeating hunting case pocket watch with split seconds chronograph with 30 minutes counter, perpetual calendar and moon phase - ébauche Louis Audemars
Case: 18k rose gold, glazed movement. Dial: enamel. Movm.: bridge movement, ébauche: Louis Audemars, gold screw compensation balance.
This exquisite pocket watch is part of a special edition of complicated watches that were produced for the German market in the late 19th century.
The rose gold Louis XV à goutte hunting case shows a very finely engraved monogram "GA"; the inner lid is stamped with the Dürrstein hallmark, "D" in a star. Two pushers for the split seconds chronograph and a slide for the minute repeater are set in the case band at "11" and "1". The white enamel dial has Arabic numerals, four subsidiary dials for day, month with leap year and date as well as auxiliary seconds with a cobalt blue enamel moon phase disc with inlaid golden stars and moon. The highly complicated movement has extremely finely mirror-polished steel chronograph parts and a very finely polished, bevelled split seconds mechanism with separate column wheel.
At the beginning of his career Johannes Dürrstein worked with wholesaler Ludwig & Fries; in 1874, however, he established his own business together with his brother Friedrich. The company traded as Dürrstein & Co. of Glashütte and sold Swiss products as well as watches by A. Lange & Söhne. Nearly 20 years later, in 1893, Dürrstein founded the "Uhrenfabrik Union".
The watches produced in this manufactory were of outstanding quality and could be made to order with high value complications of all kinds. The range included pocket chronometers, tourbillons and perpetual calendars and usually came with a rating certificate from the Hamburg Observatory. Dürrstein always tried to satisfy the universally strong demand for high quality timepieces and mainly used premium Swiss movements which he bought and cased before selling them to his customers.
Louis Audemars and Audemars Piguet are most likely to have been the main suppliers of ébauches to Dürrstein; between 1895 and 1912 Dürrstein purchased 35 of their movements, most of them with interesting complications. Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli and Martin K. Wehrli provide details and background information on this business relationship and the watches in question in "Audemars Piguet", pp. 52-55.
A heavy, astronomical minute repeating hunting case pocket watch with split seconds chronograph with 30 minutes counter, perpetual calendar and moon phase - ébauche Louis Audemars
Case: 18k rose gold, glazed movement. Dial: enamel. Movm.: bridge movement, ébauche: Louis Audemars, gold screw compensation balance.
This exquisite pocket watch is part of a special edition of complicated watches that were produced for the German market in the late 19th century.
The rose gold Louis XV à goutte hunting case shows a very finely engraved monogram "GA"; the inner lid is stamped with the Dürrstein hallmark, "D" in a star. Two pushers for the split seconds chronograph and a slide for the minute repeater are set in the case band at "11" and "1". The white enamel dial has Arabic numerals, four subsidiary dials for day, month with leap year and date as well as auxiliary seconds with a cobalt blue enamel moon phase disc with inlaid golden stars and moon. The highly complicated movement has extremely finely mirror-polished steel chronograph parts and a very finely polished, bevelled split seconds mechanism with separate column wheel.
At the beginning of his career Johannes Dürrstein worked with wholesaler Ludwig & Fries; in 1874, however, he established his own business together with his brother Friedrich. The company traded as Dürrstein & Co. of Glashütte and sold Swiss products as well as watches by A. Lange & Söhne. Nearly 20 years later, in 1893, Dürrstein founded the "Uhrenfabrik Union".
The watches produced in this manufactory were of outstanding quality and could be made to order with high value complications of all kinds. The range included pocket chronometers, tourbillons and perpetual calendars and usually came with a rating certificate from the Hamburg Observatory. Dürrstein always tried to satisfy the universally strong demand for high quality timepieces and mainly used premium Swiss movements which he bought and cased before selling them to his customers.
Louis Audemars and Audemars Piguet are most likely to have been the main suppliers of ébauches to Dürrstein; between 1895 and 1912 Dürrstein purchased 35 of their movements, most of them with interesting complications. Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli and Martin K. Wehrli provide details and background information on this business relationship and the watches in question in "Audemars Piguet", pp. 52-55.
Sold
estimated
70.000—100.000 €
Price realized
72.600 €