7,475 CHF
A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte Sa., No. 200328, circa 1939. Very fine silver, keyless deck watch with 35-hour power reserve sector and Guillaume-type balance, sold to the Kriegs-Marine (No. 5630), graded “1.Kl.” Four-body, "Lucia", polished, back with military inventory marks, hinged silver cuvette. Notes Caliber 48 was designed by Lange for the Wehrmacht and conceived to have a variation rate of less than 1 second per day. Its power reserve indicator was invented by Otto Lange and patented in Germany on Sept. 6, 1940, patent No. 732162. The Wehrmacht's demand for these watches was so great that the Lange factory sent the watches to outside watchmakers for finishing. Most of the caliber 48 watches have lateral banking utilizing a lateral extension of theepallet fork and bimetallic compensation ballances, however this watch is unusual in that it has banking in the straight line of the escape wheel–balance and a Guillaume balance.Watches that were especially well adjusted or those that went through observatory trials were marked by the Kriegs-Marine “1 Kl”, meaning “first class”. Very few of them are known. For a note on Guillaume balance, see lot 134.
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2003-10-11
