A. Lange & Söhne

The Saxonia Thin: a new offer from Lange

 

A lot of Lange fans had requested to Lange during quite a long time the creation of a thin watch. Actually, it was not a true speciality from Lange: the caliber structure and the design of the cases make a Lange watch slightly thicker than a Swiss equivalent. But Lange couldn't miss the opportunity of the redesign of the Saxonia collection to unveil a thin watch:after all, one of the major trends of the industry, including the high-end segment, is the growing part of the simple, elegant and sober watches in the overall offer.

The challenge for Lange was to create this thin watch... by keeping everything that makes a Lange watch so special.

I consider this Saxonia Thin as the most interesting watch of the new Saxonia collection because it takes fully advantage of some of its improvements.

When we analyse the new Saxonia collection, it doesn't seem to be very far from the old one. But subtles changes were made, mainly to make the case more elegant (some would say that it loses a bit its german style) and to put in harmony the second hand with the main hands.





What are the changes brought to the case? There are basically two changes:
- the shape of the lugs. They become a bit more curved to better follow the wrist.
- the crown which has been redesigned to make the winding operation easier.

These changes are important in the context of the Saxonia Thin for its elegancy, its confort on the wrist... but they don't explain why the watch is... thin.

The key point is caliber L093.1 which has a thickness of 2,9mm. To give you an idea, the classic handwind movement from Lange used by by the first 1815 and by the current handwind Saxonia, the L941.1 has a thickness of 3,2mm.





If we compare them more precisely, we get the following data:

caliber	L0931.1	L941.1
diameter	28mm	25,6mm
thickness	2,9mm	3,2mm
power reserve	72 hours	45 hours
frequency	3hz	3hz

More power reserve in a thinner movement, that's a good move from Lange! I don't need to mention that we stay within the same quality standards of a Lange caliber in both terms of finishings or pleasure at the daily use.

Aesthetically, the two calibers are very different even if they are... similar: the L941.1 has a 3/4 plate which hides almost everything while the L0931.1 has visible wheels on the 3/4 plate. They give a more enjoyable view.





The 72 hours of power reserve are "logical" for an elegant watch: you can leave it for the week end and put it back on your wrist on Monday morning without the need to set the time again.

There is obviously another detail which makes the watch thinner than usual: the absence of the second hand.

Creating a two hands watch is, in my point of view, a very difficult task as you have to avoid the "boring dial" obstacle. So the very few parts on the dial have to bring enough subtlety to not engender a feeling to wear an inert watch. And hopefully the Lange designers managed to display a lovely hands & indexes combo. The hands are the typical Lange hands. The plain dial makes them... longer, thinner. A very interesting visual effect. The indexes are also the typical ones... but these indexes are applied on the dial without the close presence of the minutes scale. And this changes everything. Without this scale, the indexes exist by themselves and look more original than ever: they actually look like an exclamation mark... maybe the symbol of the surprise brought by this watch?





The Saxonia Thin has a very slender style thanks to its diameter/thickness ratio of 40mm/5,9mm. 40mm may appear to be big for such type of watch but at the end, this size enhances the beauty of the dial. Due to the absence of the second hand and of the minutes scale, the watch looks bigger than the 1815 which has the same size. This is a point not to be forgotten if you hesitate between these two models.

The Saxonia Thin only exists for the time being with a PG case. Due to its style, I believe that it is the most suitable metal color for it... but a WG or PT version with rhodiumed hands would be very nice too. I don't think that blued hands would work the same way, I associate them so much to the minute scale and they would bring too much contrast on the dial.





Anyway... the current version is a great achievement from Lange. Because with this watch, Lange explores a new territory... with flawless details which make the Saxonia Thin very recognizable as a Lange watch.

Thanks a lot to the Lange team for the warm welcome at the SIHH Lange booth.

Fr.Xavier