A TIME-MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT IN THE SERVICE OF SCIENCE.
Strictly limited – to 50 watches in platinum and to 75 in pink gold – the RICHARD LANGE “Referenzuhr” salutes the Time-Keeping Service of the Mathematics and Physics Salon in 18th-century Dresden. The city’s Court Clockmakers and Inspectors were responsible for determining the correct time. It was measured astronomically and transferred to a precision pendulum clock. With the help of particularly accurate pocket watches, the correct time was then “distributed”. Watchmakers, scientists, and officials of the railway network were among the key users of this high-precision service.
MORE ABOUT FERDINAND A. LANGE
MORE ABOUT RICHARD LANGE
SMALL SECONDS WITH ZERO-RESTART FUNCTION.
The RICHARD LANGE “Referenzuhr” has a ZERO-RESTART function that makes it easier today to synchronise watches at different locations. When the push piece above the crown is actuated, the seconds hand automatically jumps to zero and remains there as long as the push piece is kept pressed. When it is released, the seconds hand starts running again. This simplifies the process of precisely synchronising the watch with a reference clock exactly when its seconds hand passes the zero position. Now, the time can be transferred to other watches.
A NEARLY FORGOTTEN SOURCE OF INSPIRATION.
Featuring an eccentric small seconds dial, the design of the RICHARD LANGE “Referenzuhr” was inspired by the pocket watches once used by the Time-Keeping Service. A typical example of this class of timepieces is pocket watch No. 8, shown here. It was crafted by J. H. Seyffert around 1811. Its small seconds dial is off-centre as well, at 2 o’clock. It was almost irretrievably destroyed in a fire during World War II.
