A. Lange & Söhne
6 SIHH Highlights From A. Lange & Söhne
A. Lange & Söhne
6 SIHH Highlights From A. Lange & Söhne
The first is the 1815 annual calendar. With a manually wound movement, analogue date, day and month indications as well as a moon-phase display, the 1815 annual calendar is deeply satisfying on every level.
The 1815 annual calendar is only the second A. Lange & Söhne with a calendar function (the first was a self-winding Saxonia Annual Calendar from 2010). The new 1815 features a manually wound movement and an analogue date. The manual winder is also a subtle homage to Ferdinand Adolph Lange. In 1866, he obtained a patent in the USA for his development of a crown winder that would replace the hitherto commonplace key-operated winding works, referring to it as “a useful mechanism for winding and setting watches”.
Power reserve: 72 hours when fully wound
Functions: Time indicated in hours, minutes, and subsidiary seconds with stop seconds; annual calendar with analogue date, day, month; moon-phase display
Case dimensions: Diameter: 40.0 millimetres; height: 10.1 millimetres
Strap: Hand-stitched alligator leather strap, black / Hand-stitched alligator leather strap, red brown
At first sight, the sleek grey dial of the Lange 31 in the 45.9-millimetre white-gold case does not reveal any sign of the power hidden inside its manually wound calibre. Only the white 31 at the upper end of the large power-reserve indicator and the small inscription beneath the Lange outsize date modestly refer to the fact that when fully wound, the movement will run for an entire month. It is a formidable technical challenge to endow a mechanical watch with a power reserve of 744 hours – and so is assuring superb rate accuracy from the first to the last day. This is because the twin mainspring barrel with its two 185- centimetre-long springs delivers an enormous amount of torque.
Movement: Lange manufacture calibre L034.1, manually wound; crafted to the most exacting Lange quality standards, decorated and assembled by hand; precision-adjusted in five positions; twin mainspring barrel; constant-force escapement with remontoir spring produced in-house; plates and bridges made of untreated German silver; balance cock engraved by hand
Power reserve: 31 days (744 hours) when fully wound
Functions: Time indicated in hours, minutes, and subsidiary seconds with stop seconds; outsize date; power-reserve indicator
Case dimensions: Diameter: 45.9 millimetres; height: 15.9 millimetres
Strap: Hand-stitched alligator leather strap, dark brown
The white dial made of solid silver is covered with a very thin layer of iridescent mother of pearl. The slender hands and baton-style hour markers are in solid gold and sign off what is a delightful women’s dress watch.
Movement: Lange manufacture calibre L941.1, manually wound, crafted to the most exacting Lange quality standards, decorated and assembled by hand; precision-adjusted in five positions; three-quarter plate made of untreated German silver; balance cock engraved by hand
Power reserve: 45 hours when fully wound
Functions: Time indicated in hours, minutes, and subsidiary seconds with stop seconds
Case dimensions:Diameter: 35.0 millimetres; height: 7.3 millimetres
Strap: Hand-stitched white alligator leather strap
The fifth masterpiece in A. Lange & Söhne’s “Pour le Mérite” series combines the fusée-and-chain transmission with a tourbillon, a chronograph, a rattrapante function and a perpetual calendar. In October 1994, A. Lange & Söhne presented the first collection of the new era, including the tourbillon “Pour le Mérite”, the first wristwatch with a tourbillon and a fusée-and-chain transmission. It was followed in 2005 with a further model in which these two elaborate constructions were united: the Tourbograph “Pour le Mérite”. And finally, a chronograph with the rattrapante function made it the manufactory’s most complicated watch at the time.
Now, the movement has a fifth complication: a perpetual calendar in the Tourbograph Perpetual “Pour le Mérite”, presented the engineers of the Saxon manufactory with a formidable challenge. In this project, the perpetual calendar mechanism had to be built around the tourbillon. Consequently, about two thirds of the movement surface were available, and this necessitated a redesign of the basic calibre. At the same time, the developers did not want to noticeably increase the height of the movement. A magnificent piece of engineering.
Power reserve: 36 hours when fully wound
Functions: Time indicated in hours, minutes; tourbillon; chronograph with rattrapante function; perpetual calendar with date, day, month, leap year; moon-phase display
Case dimensions: Diameter: 43.0 millimetres; height: 16.6 millimetres
Strap: Hand-stitched alligator leather strap, black
Limited edition: 50 watches
I’m a sucker for the Lange 1. Its almost perfect in every way. And it’s the sort of watch you can spotfrom a country mile off! The Little Lange 1 Moon Phase is a new addition this year. Featuring a new movement, the elegant model features a guilloched, argenté-coloured dial accommodated in a 36.8-millimetre pink-gold case.
Compared to the Lange 1 Moon Phase, this latest version of the classic timepiece is 1.7 millimetres smaller. The warm gloss of the polished pink-gold case contrasts with the exquisitely guilloched, argenté-coloured gold dial of the Little Lange 1 Moon Phase. Featuring two golden moons, the lunar disc of this model is also argenté-coloured. The astronomical complication emulates the synodic orbit of the earth’s companion so accurately that it only needs to be corrected by one day every 122.6 years. Shiny pink-gold hands and appliques accentuate the asymmetric dial with its precisely jumping outsize date display.
Movement: Lange manufacture calibre L121.2, manually wound, crafted to the most exacting Lange quality standards, decorated and assembled by hand; precision-adjusted in five positions; plates made of untreated German silver; balance cock en- graved by hand
Power reserve: 72 hours
Functions: Time indicated in hours, minutes, and subsidiary seconds with stop seconds; power-reserve indicator; Lange outsize date; moon-phase display
Case dimensions: Diameter: 36.8 millimetres; height: 9.5 millimetres
Strap:Alligator leather strap, white
Last, but certainly not least — let me introduce the Zeitwerk Decimal Strike. This is a honey gold Zeitwerk (the third Zeitwerk in the family featuring an acoustic time indication), limited to 100 pieces, that now strikes every ten minutes.
Introduced in 2009, the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk gave time a new face with a mechanical jumping numerals display. In the new model, it relies on two differently tuned gongs to indicate the full hours as well as the ten-minute intervals between the start of one hour and the next. The two hammers that are visible on the dial side consist of polished steel and, like the hammer bridge, are decorated with a tremblage engraving. The hammer on the left strikes the low-pitched gong once every full hour. The right-hand hammer sounds a higher-pitched tone every ten minutes, or in other words, every time a new ten-minute interval begins.
Movement: Lange manufacture calibre L043.7, manually wound, crafted to the most exacting Lange quality standards, decorated and assembled by hand; precision-adjusted in five positions; three- quarter plate made of untreated German silver; balance cock engraved by hand; jumping minutes; constant-force escapement
Power reserve: 36 hours when fully wound
Functions: Time indicated in hours and minutes as jumping numerals, subsidiary seconds with stop seconds, power-reserve indicator, acoustic signal every ten minutes and at the start of each hour
Case dimensions: Diameter: 44.2 millimetres; height: 13.1 millimetres
Strap: Hand-stitched alligator leather strap, dark brown