A. Lange & Söhne gives the Zeitwerk the tagline “the digital watch with a mechanical heart.” And this exactly says what the Zeitwerk is: a mechanical jump-hour watch that allows time to be read the same way you did on your Casio as a kid, but with all of the maison’s watchmaking heft behind those digital jumps. The new versions of the watch in platinum and pink gold are driven by the latest jump-hour movement, the caliber L043.6 that has a newly doubled power reserve of 72 hours and seemingly instantaneous jump-hour technology underpinned by seven patents. Fans of the brand are going to love this…

There is something about A. Lange & Söhne (or just Lange to its friends), that instills a zealous following in those who covet and collect its watches. True believers also keep relatively quiet about their love for the watches, because they like their club just the way it is — exclusive. And for good reason, too. Morgan Stanley’s latest report that was created in partnership with WatchCharts has highlighted that against the backdrop of a softening market on collectible watches, Lange has bucked the trend and shown solid growth in the secondary market through the first to third quarters of 2022. Vintage is strong, too, with an A. Lange & Söhne German Air Force watch from the 1940s selling for over double its estimate at almost €9,000 at Monaco Legend Group this past weekend.

The first Zeitwerk was launched in 2009 and was inspired by the famous Five-Minute Clock in the Semper Opera House in Dresden, which was designed to be easily visible to even those seated furthest away. Master clockmaker Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes had devised a digital clock that changed the minutes display every five minutes and built it with the help of his apprentices, including Ferdinand Adolph Lange. The original clock design was a leap away from the traditional dial with rotary hands, as that would have needed to be huge to be legible to everybody.

Lange now uses the latest technology for the newest Zeitwerks. The caliber L043.6 utilizes three jumping numeral disks. “To switch the disks of the jumping numerals mechanism to forward on time every minute, the movement requires much more energy than a classic time display,” explains Anthony de Haas, Lange’s Director of Product Development. “Not only are the numerals disks very heavy by watchmaking standards, but they also have to be quickly accelerated and braked again. This calls for considerably higher forces than the uniform rotation of a pair of hands of much less weight. The greatest amount of energy is needed at the top of the hour when the movement advances all three disks at the same time.”

The new Zeitwerk has a case diameter of 41.9mm, with the pink gold model housing a black dial with time bridge made of untreated German silver. The platinum model has a rhodié dial made of solid silver. Each watch has color-matching hands, and the pink gold model has a black alligator leather strap while the platinum version is paired with a dark-brown alligator leather strap.

Tech Specs

Model: Zeitwerk
Reference: 142.025 (platinum); 142.031 (pink gold)
Movement: Manual-winding manufacture caliber L043.6
Functions: Jumping hours and minutes; subsidiary seconds with stop seconds; power-reserve indicator
Case: 41.9mm; 950 platinum or 18K pink gold
Dial: Solid silver, rhodié (platinum model); solid silver, black (pink gold model)
Strap: Dark brown (platinum model) or black (pink gold model) handstitched alligator