I’m sure this falls outside the remit of objective criticism, but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be in some way prepossessed by the work of A Lange & Söhne.
The German marque, reborn in the early 1990s after a phoenix-like rise from the ashes of Soviet appropriation, is one of the great names in fine watchmaking, a rank earned following three successive decades of memorable watches.
Its hand-finished movements fall into the work-of-art category, so much so that I wouldn’t be the first to suggest owners may find themselves wanting to wear theirs back to front. An absurd idea, of course, until you turn one over: its movements are among the prettiest in all watchmaking.
Today, Lange has dropped three new models, all of which fit the (grandiose, yes) billing. Here they are.
Langematik Perpetual
A high complication – that is, a watch with a mix of complex functions – is a Lange signature. For the 20th anniversary of the Langematik Perpetual, a watch with a perpetual calendar and an outsize date, Lange has produced two 50-piece limited-editions, one in white gold and another in pink gold.
Both have dressy, midnight blue dials and sit on blue leather straps, but the magic is in the simplicity of the way their functions are managed. For example, the calendar displays – day, date, month, leap year, moonphase – are adjustable via a single corrector, where normally there’d be several. That makes living with a perpetual calendar, which tracks month lengths through leap years but can be a fiddle to own, a doddle.
Similarly, it has a “zero reset” function, whereby the seconds hand pings back to zero when you pull the crown out, for ultra-accurate setting. On paper, these sound like small things, and in a way they are, until you live with the watch and discover how much they improve the experience of ownership. Lange’s quiet purpose in a nutshell.
£81,400. alange-soehne.com
Saxonia Thin
Having been to a black-tie event for the first time in 18 months recently, the prospect of an out-and-out dress watch begins to make sense once again (even if only for a short time).
A midnight blue velvet dinner suit jacket paired with Lange’s pink gold Saxonia Thin two-hander would make more sense still in the setting, thanks to its blue gold flux dial, which is sprinkled with copper-coloured particles to mimic a nocturnal sky.
The watch is a pleasingly modest 6.2mm thick, meaning it will slot under a cuff but not so imperceptibly as to vanish. Adding to its charm is that it’s movement is hand-wound, confirming its “occasion watch” status – you only wind it when you need it. Hard not to be starry-eyed.
£23,500. alange-soehne.com
Cabaret Tourbillon Handwerkskunst
Assuming you’re careful in your pronunciation, Lange’s Cabaret Tourbillon Handwerkskunst is something of a talking point.
As well as being an uncommon rectangular shape (beyond Jaeger-LeCoultre’s idiosyncratic but evergreen Reverso, few contemporary designs are lozenge shaped), it’s also a continuation of a 2008 Lange model that became the world’s first mechanical watch with a tourbillon you could stop yourself to set the watch.
That rotating tourbillon cage is a mechanical wonder, too. It’s made up of 84 parts and yet weighs just a quarter of a gram. Once it’s in motion, the eyes turn to the watch’s other charms, particularly the dial layering and material finishing, such as the highly unusual hand-engraved lozenge-motif that repeats on the dial, and the tourbillon, too.
Only 30 of these platinum beauties will be made, each numbered.
POA. alange-soehne.com
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