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Lange & Sohne introduces the Tourbograph Pour le Merite
About one month ago I recieved an email from Lange & Sohne inviting me to Glash?tte on October 24 for the presentation of a new timepiece from the manufacture. I called and emailed but did not get any answer to my questions as what it would be.
I knew it would be something amazing?.but what? A minute repeater? A tourbillon? Lange?s version of the Sky Moon Tourbillon or Tour de l?Ile?
Well all I had to do was wait for the press conference to see the watch. In fact the 24th of October had not been randomly chosen. It was exactly 11 years ago that the first 4 models of the new Lange & S?hne manufactory had been presented to the public, 1994 was also the year this new watch had been thought out.
The folks at Lange were playing it cool! We all were dying with anticipation in discovering this new watch but even when gathered for the presentation we had nothing but some small hints. We were finally invited to go on a tour of the manufactory and see the production process of certain components and we would need to guess for ourselves what it would be!
The first workshop we visited had a young lady finishing a tourbillon cage. AHA we thought with great pride as if we had discovered the secret formula for Coca Cola: ?it?s a tourbillon!!?
But its no ordinary tourbillon, in fact with this watch Lange had decided to take finish one step further than what is already extremely high standards, and finish the visible and non visible parts to the same degree!
This tourbillon cage for example due to its different curves takes 5 days to finish!
Next step was the regulation of the movement. Lange had created a special system which enables the movement to function correctly without the tourbillon cage rotating:
(poising of the cage)
(a special tool created by Lange for regulation of the movement)
The tourbillon bridge is also black polished
The plates, bridges and components are finished to extremely high standards with certain tools which once again were created by Lange for this watch!
The rapid tour came to an end, having a watchmaker in my group we had found out that not only was it a tourbillon with fusee and chain alike the wonderful Pour Le Merite but also a chronograph. Well we were bound to find out soon enough.
The lights went out in the conference room, the camera went on and on screen we were presented with the Tourbograph Pour Le Merite. Oohs and ahhs among the audience but ?where?s the watch?? All we got to see was this:
Tourbillon (with fusee and chain) with a split seconds chronograph.
The movement of the watch: Caliber L 903.0, comprising of 465 parts(without the chain), the tourbillon cage comprising 84 parts and the chain over 600!!! 30mm diameter and 8.9 mm thickness
We learned that the movement was developed in collaboration with Renaud & Papi
(Giulio Papi)
The story behind this watch in fact is quite interesting. When the Pour le Merite was launched in 1994, Herr Blumlein had already had the idea of adding a split seconds mechanism to it in the future and the Pour Le Merite was originally developed with this in mind.
In an industry where secrecy is the master word, kudos should be given to Lange & S?hne for having openly admitted in working with Renaud & Papi on this project (which took 15 years to complete, even though the boost was given end of 1999).
When asked why they openly admitted it, Fabien Krone, the CEO, stated very openly that there was no shame to admitting not having every expertise in house and having one of the most talented watchmakers of the world work on this project.
But, what about the watch? When were we going to see it? The only answer was an invitation to discover the fully assembled movement:
Rumors started spreading that this was all we were going to see and that they had not had the time to show us the full watch!
But still no watch was to be seen! Both extremely exited about this new movement but slightly disappointed in not seeing what it looked like we set off for dinner in a wonderful manor in the vineyards of Meissen. What was to be a 30 minute drive took over an hour and during pre dinner drinks another rumor spread that the car had taken such a long time to allow the finished watch to arrive to destination before the guests!!
But nothing yet!
Keeping us all in the dark was an excellent idea, excitement was rising when we were invited into a room to discover Lange?s latest masterpiece, and I must admit that I got all shaky when I saw the watch: perfect in all aspects, exactly what one could expect from a Lange: no extravagant design, no frills, no gimmick but a perfectly executed timepiece!
(the box in which the watch is presented is a masterpiece in itself!)
Behind a rather barbaric name, the Duograph Tourbillon pour le Merite is in my opinion certainly the most exciting watch from Lange & S?hne since the presentation of the Datograph in 1999. A truly gorgeous timepiece which will be limited to only 101 pieces, of which 51 shall be in platinum and the remaining 50 in gold (the breakdown of metal colors has yet to be determined). Assembly of the Turbograph Pour Le Merite takes about one month and therefore only approximately 12 pieces will be made per annum. First deliveries are due second semester 2007.