Die Taschenuhrensammlung von Gerd Ahrens

BOOKREVIEW

The Gerd Ahrens Collection of Pocket Watches

“Die Taschenuhrensammlung von Gerd Ahrens”, published [in German] by Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, with contributions of Wolf Brueggemann, Norbert Enders, Peter Friess, Martin Otzenberger, Joseph M. Stadl, and Susanne Stadl.  ISBN 3-7667 1668 3, 2006 Callwey Verlag, Muenchen (Germany).  Limited edition of 1200 numbered copies. Two volumes in slipcase, 655 pages.  Price:  Euro 128 (approx. USD 170) plus postage.

The pocketwatch collection of Gerd Ahrens, the legendary German collector, who recently passed away in Switzerland, must have been one of the most significant private collections ever assembled documenting the technical history of the pocket watch.  Over a span of 50 years, Mr. Ahrens systematically sought out watches with unusual escapements, striking mechanisms or winding systems, covering everything from the 16^th to the early 20^th century.  A total of over 750 significant pocket watches, many of them unique, were acquired over a lifetime.  The 538 most interesting of these form the basis of the publication under review.

Christian Pfeiffer-Belli –longtime editor of the magazine “Klassik Uhren”- assembled a team of experts, writers and photographers, and led one of the most ambitious projects ever to fully document such a rich collection.  The resulting publication is massive in more ways than one (it weighs about 10 pounds). The two large format books were produced on heavy stock, and come in a substantial slipcase.  But the “content” is just as imposing as the physical dimensions.

Fundamentally, the book is a detailed descriptive catalog of the 538 “best” watches from an extraordinary private collection of pocket watches of technical interest.  It is organized into seven chapters, based on types of escapement:  1. Verge escapements (68 watches), 2. Cylinder escapements (75), 3. Duplex escapements (27), 4. Chronometer escapements (65), 5. Tourbillons (8), 6. Specialty escapements (24), and 7. Leverescapements (272).  The book starts with a short biographic sketch of the collector; each of the seven chapters starts with an illustrated discussion on how that particular type of escapement functions. 

The bulk of the publication is devoted to the individual watches.  Each is presented in its own one or two page spread.  Each of these 538 descriptions includes a live-size picture of the watch from its dial side, and a picture of the movement (at 100% or 150% of original size).  In some cases, there is a third photograph, e.g. of the case back, the signature, or a technical detail.  In addition the majority of the entries have their own line-drawing illustrations explaining the escapement (most are from the pen of David Penney, who in the opinion of this reviewer is the most talented horological illustrator alive).  About half of each page is devoted to text, describing movement, case, dial and hands in detail, including all signatures and marks.  Comments from the handwritten catalog of the collector are quoted, and unusual features are described.  Exact dimensions (diameter and thickness) are given in millimeters.  The provenance is given, and there are bibliographic references (books and auction catalogs, down to specific pages) for each watch.

It should be clear by now that this is not a pretty coffee table book on pocket watches, but a very serious work of horological scholarly documentation.  Befitting the nature of the book there are several indices, by Maker, Location and Type of escapement.  The general bibliography in the appendix is not very extensive.

This is not the book a novice pocket watch collector should buy to get an overview of what is out there to collect.  This is not a book that is easy and pleasant to browse through; studying the history of the pocket watch through this book is hard work; yes there is lot of interesting and useful information, but there is no easy to follow “story”.

While the horological scholar in me is delighted that this book was written and published, I can not help but wonder who the intended buyers are.  It was published in 1200 numbered copies, and sells at price of Euros 128 (plus shipping).  While two hundred US dollars landed cost is not cheap for any book, it is self evident to this reviewer that this price reflects merely the approximate marginal production costs of one set – if that, and that the enormous one time expense for gathering and organizing the data and creating the illustrations and layout must have been underwritten by a third party.

This catalog was intended as a tribute to Gerd Ahrens on occasion of his 85^th birthday in September 2005.  Production delays caused this deadline to be missed, and Mr. Ahrens died in December 2005.  Maybe it is therefore appropriate to see the fact that the Ahrens collection now is so superbly documented as his most valuable gift to posterity.  Horological researchers and scholars for generations will cherish the few copies produced, even the readers who may not be fully fluent in German.  Contact the publisher at <a href="http://www.callwey.de/">www.callwey.de</a> if you want to own one of the most comprehensive documentations on the technical history of the pocket watch ever created.

Fortunat Mueller-Maerki, Sussex, New Jersey

28.December 2006