SIGNED L. JENSEN, GLASHÜTTE I/S, NO. 44, CIRCA 1915

The Second German Reich was established as a nation state in 1871 with an army and a navy under an emperor, Wilhelm I. From 1878 under a system of protective tariffs, a policy of autarky, self-sufficiency, created, with the growth of the banking system, a modern technically advanced industrial economy. The navy required chronometers and deck watches. A commission was set up to organize the production of movements and components for marine chronometers. The indigenous industry was at first weak. In the period 1886-7 to 1897-8 A. Lange & Shne submitted five chronometers for test, some of them several times with different balances. In 1898 Jensen, another Glashuette maker, experimented with the pivoted detent, this was repeated in 1900-1 with a Kullberg balance. From then until 1902-3 both Lange and Jensen used this balance. From 1903-4 Lange used the nickel-steel (iron) Guillaume balance, for which he had the German licence. Jensen continued to experiment with a bimetallic balance and palladium balance spring.