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Lot Essay
Johannes Dürrstein started his career with the wholesaler Ludwig & Fries. In 1874 he and his brother Friedrich set up their own business Dürrstein & Co. in Glashütte, offering Swiss products but also watches from A. Lange & Söhne. In 1893 Dürrstein founded Uhrenfabrik Union.
Dürrstein watches are of high quality and on special request could be supplied with the most complicated of mechanisms including pocket chronometers, tourbillons and perpetual calendars and with a rating certificate from the Hamburg Observatory. To satisfy their clients' strong demand for high quality watches, Dürrstein often bought best quality Swiss movements which were then cased and retailed.
One of Dürrstein's most important suppliers of ébauches was Audemars Piguet, supplying between 1895 and 1912 a total of 35 mostly highly complicated movements to the "Mecca of German watchmaking". For a detail description of this trade and detailed listing of the watches sold see Audemars Piguet by Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, Martin K. Wehrli, pp. 52-55.
Although the movement of the present watch is not signed, it is doubtlessly of Swiss origin, the ébauche very likely supplied by Louis Elisée Piguet. It is interesting to note that a what seems to be identical hunter case minute repeating split seconds chronograph perpetual calendar watch, delivered to Dürrstein in 1901, is illustrated in aforementioned volume, p. 52.
For a minute repeating carillon watch by Dürrstein see lot 141 in this auction.
Dürrstein watches are of high quality and on special request could be supplied with the most complicated of mechanisms including pocket chronometers, tourbillons and perpetual calendars and with a rating certificate from the Hamburg Observatory. To satisfy their clients' strong demand for high quality watches, Dürrstein often bought best quality Swiss movements which were then cased and retailed.
One of Dürrstein's most important suppliers of ébauches was Audemars Piguet, supplying between 1895 and 1912 a total of 35 mostly highly complicated movements to the "Mecca of German watchmaking". For a detail description of this trade and detailed listing of the watches sold see Audemars Piguet by Gisbert L. Brunner, Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, Martin K. Wehrli, pp. 52-55.
Although the movement of the present watch is not signed, it is doubtlessly of Swiss origin, the ébauche very likely supplied by Louis Elisée Piguet. It is interesting to note that a what seems to be identical hunter case minute repeating split seconds chronograph perpetual calendar watch, delivered to Dürrstein in 1901, is illustrated in aforementioned volume, p. 52.
For a minute repeating carillon watch by Dürrstein see lot 141 in this auction.