Importantes Montres de Collection

Geneva, Nov 13, 2011

LOT 164

A. LANGE & SÖHNE ? MINUTE REPEATER WITH LANGE DOUBLE CHRONOGRAPH SYSTEM? ONE OF THREE MADE. A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte B/Dresden, No. 16977. Made in 1884, sold on September 30, 1884 for 1,750 Marks. Exceptionally rare, one of three examples made, large and heavy, 18K red gold, minute-repeating, keyless, hunting-cased pocket watch with 1st Quality movement with precision balance, Lange double-chronograph system with single push-piece for all four functions via one column wheel and split-seconds calipers on the dial side. Accompanied by the Extract from the Archives.

CHF 70,000 - 85,000

USD 75,000 - 90,000 / EUR 55,000 - 70,000

Sold: CHF 80,500

C. Four-body, stepped Louis XV, massive, solid, polished, chronograph button at 12 governing all four functions. Hinged gold cuvette and glazed gold-rimmed cover to view the movement. D. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute divisions concentric with fi fths of a second chronograph divisions, outermost Arabic fi ve-second numerals, subsidiary seconds. Louis XV gold hour and minute hands, blued steel chronograph hands. M. 19???, German silver, 1st Quality, 25 jewels in screwed gold chatons, straight-line lever escapement with gold fork and escape wheel, Lange precision bimetallic compensation balance cut in the manner of Guillaume, gold temperature adjustment screws, blued steel Breguet balance spring with terminal curve, foliate engraved cock, diamond endstone, index regulator, visible mechanism for the four-function chronograph, the split-seconds calipers on the dial side, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band. Dial, case, cuvette and movement signed. Diam. 58 mm.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2

Very good
Movement: 2*

Very good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 2-8-01

Very good

Slightly scratched

HANDS Original

Notes

The present watch can be counted amongst the rarest of Lange & Söhne watches. Only three examples with minute repeating and doublechronograph were made, the earliest, No. 13405, made in 1880, the present watch, No. 16977, made in 1884, and the last, No. 18128, made in 1885. It is also one of only four known watches in the entire Lange & Söhne production where the split-seconds calipers are placed on the dial-side of the movement.
Lange Double-Chronograph System with Single Push-Piece Lange & Söhne is one of the few manufacturers to have produced a double chronograph with single push-piece governing all four functions via one column-wheel. The fi rst pressure starts both hands together, the second stops the fl y-back, the third stops the chronograph-hand and the fourth zeroes them together. The stopping and zeroing of the hands is by the calipers used in all split-seconds chronographs. However, unlike the usual split-seconds chronograph, the double-chronograph cannot take intermediary times.
Literature: Reinhard Meis, A. Lange & Söhne, The Watchmakers of Dresden, 1997, p.248 & p. 263