737 - A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte, Kriegsmarine deck watch, Lépine gentleman's pocket watch, circa 1944

A. Lange & Söhne Glashütte, Kriegsmarine deck watch, Lépine gentleman's pocket watch, circa 1944 Silver-coloured metal case, plain, with detachable case back and hinged dust cover. Open-face Lépine gentleman's pocket watch with the crown at 12 o'clock, deck watch of the Kriegsmarine, round bow, fluted ball crown, lateral hand-setting lever on the case band at 1 o'clock for setting the hands. The dust cover engraved "Werk: A.Lange & Söhne", "Nr. 204232" and "Fertiggestellt: A.Lange & Söhne Glashütte", the case back engraved with the movement number "204 232" and the navy number "M 11453", the inside of the cover with round company stamp "GLASHÜTTE", in the centre "A. Lange & Söhne", and stamped number "1067564". Silver-coloured dial, black Arabic numerals, railway minute track, two sunken subsidiary dials: power reserve indicator "AUF" and "AB" with scale 7 to 28 at 9 o'clock, subsidiary seconds at 3 o'clock. Blued hands, pear-shaped hour hand. Gold-coloured plate movement, calibre 48, crown winding, signed on the plate "A.Lange & Söhne Glashütte i. Sa." and numbered "204232", compensation balance with weight screws, swan-neck regulator, jewels in gold-coloured chatons. Very good condition commensurate with age. Watch running. D. 60 mm, H. 17 mm, weight 166 g. Calibre 48 was developed by A. Lange & Söhne in Glashütte between 1937 and 1940 under military contract; the requirement was a rate deviation of no more than one second in 24 hours, which is why the large movement, 48 mm in diameter, was given a power reserve indicator with differential gearing, a swan-neck regulator and a compensation balance. Series production of these navy observation watches began in October 1940 with movement number 200000 for the Kriegsmarine, which marked these deck watches with its own navy number on the case back. Because Glashütte could not meet the demand alone, Andreas Huber in Munich, Alpina-Dugena and Felsing in Berlin and Wempe in Hamburg also took over the finishing of the ébauches; the respective firm signed the inner cover accordingly. By May 1945, 5975 of these calibre 48 observation watches, also called B-Uhr, had been made; after the war production continued in Glashütte, latterly at VEB Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe, until the early 1970s. The inscription "AUF" and "AB" denotes the up-and-down indication, i.e. the state of wind of the mainspring; some of these Glashütte pocket watches for the navy were delivered without a signature on the dial.