Watches and Wonders 2022: Lange & Sohne Richard Lange Minute Repeater.

May 20, 2022,14:57 PM
 




The Richard Lange line certainly is one of my favorites among the different Lange & Sohne families. 

The first Richard Lange, classic, simple, beautiful, then the Richard Lange Pour Le Mérite, with its hidden sophistication ( fusée and chan, enamel dial ) and ... The Jumping Seconds, in platinum, in 2017, and in white gold, in 2019 are indisputably superb choices. 

This year, Lange comes with a masterpiece, sober, sublimely cold with its platinum case and its enamel dial, AND with one of the most prestigious complications, a minute repeater. 


Truth to be told, it is one of the 6 greatest watches I could see at Watches and Wonders, this year. 

The case is perfectly sized, for me, with a diameter of 39 mm and a height of 9, 7 mm,  and is just 20 meters water resistant. Be careful when you wash your hands...


The white enamel dial is silky / milky, with a superb depth. The blue hands contrast very nicely but I would have maybe liked a bit more life, with a bigger touch of red than the very discreet small index at 60 minutes, just above the XII. A Red XII would have been perfect. Or white not, a blue one! 



The Cal L122.1 is made of 415 parts, german silver ( as always for a Lange movement ), manual winding, 4 golden chatons,, beats at 21, 600 alternances per hour and offers a power reserve of 72 hours. 



The hammers of the minute repeater are not only sublime, the sound they provide is matte albeit rich enough, at least from what I could hear on this video: 


The regulator seems to be quite discrete but one of the very good points of this minute repeater is that the pause between the hours, the quarter and the minutes is eliminated. Concretely, you won't have to wait too long to hear the quarters or the minutes directly after the hours. It is not something specific to Lange, but it is not common, either. 
Of course, I will, as soon as I can, test the acoustic qualities of this watch. But, as it is, I am in love. 


One con, though... 

- The retail price is super high, not to say way too high, a bit above 400, 000 Euros. Yes, you read well, alas. These super high priced watches seem to be a curious trend, lately... 

Looking forward to reading your comments and thoughts, 

Best.

Nicolas


More posts: Richard LangeRichard Lange Pour le Mérite

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Comments: view entire thread

 

Remarkably thin and an interesting and useful...

 
 By: mdg : May 20th, 2022-15:03
...inventions. But platinum is usually not considered ideal for a repeater case. I wonder why they didn't go with a different metal...

A stunning piece.

 
 By: russell996 : May 20th, 2022-15:46
Many thanks for your detailed review. 👍

Pleasure, mon ami.

 
 By: amanico : May 20th, 2022-17:47

First of all thanks for the wonderful update.

 
 By: aperna : May 20th, 2022-16:23
What amazes me most is how it’s so unassuming from the dial side and when you turn it over you see a powerhouse of a time piece

My kind of watch.

 
 By: amanico : May 20th, 2022-17:47

+1!

 
 By: Chronometer (aka yacomino) : May 20th, 2022-19:54

You know me well! 😁

 
 By: Chronometer (aka yacomino) : May 21st, 2022-14:01

Yep.

 
 By: amanico : May 21st, 2022-17:14

Thanks for the additional photos and info!

 
 By: SakeM : May 20th, 2022-18:12
Love this one! As others have said, so simple and clean and yet hiding an amazing complication. The local boutique told me they're getting one this year and it's already spoken for (by someone with a much much larger watch budget than me 😂).

Another impeccable piece and great horological accomplishment for Lange.

 
 By: BigAppleBill : May 20th, 2022-18:21
Lange continues to affirm its proper place among the top Maisons of high horology.

Agreed.

 
 By: amanico : May 21st, 2022-06:22

Wow!

 
 By: loopsandsounds : May 20th, 2022-18:31
Dial side it reminds me of a 5078P, but the movement is pure Lange!

Yes, somehow, yes.

 
 By: amanico : May 21st, 2022-06:22

❤️

 
 By: Jp75 : May 20th, 2022-18:34
Beautiful watch: I like the “below the radar” approach, with only a small slider showing that you got something very special. Also the nearly “wet looking” aspect of the writing/inks on the dial makes it unique ❤️. You speak about regulator noise and if I... 

🙏

 
 By: Jp75 : May 21st, 2022-08:03
Thanks for the explanations. my curiosity is triggered, will try to read more on the grail of watch making, i.e., repeaters. Cheers, Jerome

This is right up my alley as well! Thank you for the review!

 
 By: DarrenKats : May 20th, 2022-18:46
Except for the price of course.

My pleasure, Darren.

 
 By: amanico : May 21st, 2022-06:25

Thank you for yet another interesting post.

 
 By: lm6 : May 20th, 2022-19:24
This must be (without having seen it in real life) my favorite watch from Watches and Wonders. Very much "under the radar", and irresistably beautiful in it's visual simplicity. Sublime elegance!

Well said!

 
 By: amanico : May 21st, 2022-06:26

stunning timepiece no doubt but half a million ?!

 
 By: mahesh : May 20th, 2022-20:11
I hope they launch this dial on a standard central seconds Richard Lange ! Best, mahesh.,

I like watches like this horological highlights that fly under the radar

 
 By: jml_watches : May 20th, 2022-22:41
Very nice - & something to dream about. Cheers JML

My kind of watch

 
 By: destrodan : May 21st, 2022-03:04
Hopefully Lange will create additional iterations in the future beyond the limited release of these 50 examples.

Yes, same hopes here.

 
 By: amanico : May 21st, 2022-17:14

Nico, thank you for this wonderful review.

 
 By: CR : May 23rd, 2022-12:43
I would love to hear the sound of this watch in different case metals as well, and the size is just right!

Thanks for commenting.

 
 By: amanico : June 30th, 2022-06:10