This watch is a very fine example of one of A. Lange & Söhne's dead beat jumping seconds watches, fitted with the celebrated "Quality 1A" movement. Reserved for the firm's best watches, these movements were executed following very specific standards, featuring screwed gold chatons, gold wheels, precision regulators and diamond endstones. The solid high quality 18K gold case was added to a later date. The seconds are activated/stopped by depressing the crown.

As for Ferdinand Adolf Lange the readability of the small constant seconds particularly for scientific purposes wasn't a satisfactory solution, he developed as early as in the mid-1860s a "jumping seconds" mechanism. This initial system was used in an exceedingly small number of watches only. Ferdinand Adolf Lange's "seconde morte" was first introduced as one of Emil Lange's masterpieces and then improved by Richard Lange with the direct transfer of the jumping seconds from the centre.

The designation "dead seconds" or "Seconde Morte" in French comes from the fact that the second hand stops on each position while moving forward.

1877, some 100 years after Jean-Moise Pouzait's development of the first "Seconde Morte" system, A. Lange & Söhne in Glashütte patented a jumping seconds mechanism, further developed by Richard Lange with only one going barrel, as Reich Patent no. 182 on 3 August 1877.