A.Lange & Sohne - Lange boutique Tokyo opening mini-report

Lange boutique Tokyo opening mini-report

Guten tag to my fellow brothers& sisters in this perfectionist family known as A. Lange & Söhne
As promised from yesterday, im here to write a mini-report on the opening of the boutique in Tokyo today. This boutique is the 1st Lange boutique in Japan, and third in the world, following the Dresden and Shanghai boutique.
Before anything though, I know its a pain in the ass for most of you, but i sincerely still MUST APOLOGISE as always that there will be no photos accompanying my report, because i still have not gotten round to getting that camera of mine, but one the other hand, a good news is that instead of the april date that i initially said, it might happen this coming monday So please, enjoy reading, but not seeing, for the time being
The day started off with me arriving outside the boutique at 10:50am. The boutique was due to open at 11am, although they didnt open till 11:01:12 according to my Richard Lange, which was synchronised to the local atomic time this morning, so trust me, that exact time is accurate.
And as was my dream/wish , is that I wanted to be the very 1st customer to set foot into the boutique. And i managed to do just that! Besides me, there were 2 more other local customers waiting to get in.
Once in, i got aquainted with the boutique, which is built in a long, narrow style, unlike the dresden and shanghai ones. The design and materials though, are virtually the same, so for those of you who have seen on the webpages the other 2 boutiques, there is nothing different from those. The 5 minute clock, at the far end of the boutique is the main piece. Ironically, as pointed out by the boutique staff, that is the only item in the entire shop that is NOT In Deutschland hergestellt (Made in Germany) , but instead made in Switzerland. The clock is accurate, as it is a quartz, but the only problem is that at each transition from 55 mins to the hour, it makes a huge cranking noise as it tries to turn from 55 to a blank 00, and the crank of the 2 barrels that houses the hour and minutes actually work in opposite direction.
The pieces on display on opening day, were as the local brand CEO told me prior, are nothing that i have never seen nor touched. Now i am not sure what are the usual amount of pieces that are on display in your local AD, but in Tokyo, we usually have quite a few of the masterpieces from Lange even in a local AD. Therefore we had the usual stuff, Datographs, saxonia, 1815 ( yes even some of the discontinued pieces), Richard Lange, Lange 1 etc.. and each of these in their various cases and variations( YG, RG, WG, PT). Even the Caberet tourbillon in PT But these are of course normal pieces arent they? But then again, there it ABSOLUTELY NOTHING "normal" about the ONLY brand fit for a perfectionist, is there?
Now, about that special piece i mentioned about last night, it turned out to be a Lange 1 moonphase in a white gold case, with a white gold dial that is guilloche dialed, and limited to 25 pieces for the boutique opening. The serial number is engraved into the edge of the back, together with Tokyo as well. I dont know how much this piece will speak to you all, but for me, even though it is limited and such, it doesnt speak to me that much, thats why i decided NOT to pull the trigger on it. Namely the fact that it isnt PT ( i mainly purchase only PT for my collection), and it comes in at less than 40mm. (My personal criteria being minimum of 40mm, with a few exceptions).
The prototype will be in the store by tomorrow, with the actual production pieces coming in sometimes after the middle of next year! So dont expect it to receive it that fast, right now its just about deciding the number that you might want, and put your deposit down, and start the long wait.
As for the guests at the opening, we had Herr Krone in town, and Michael Tay of the Hourglass Singapore too. Other than that, we naturally have the usual Lange staff of Japan, Herr Kesselmann, Masamura San, and most of the Hourglass Japan people.
I had a great time at the opening, drinking loads of champagne, and chatting up with everyone, getting to know new people at the same time too
Overall i would say that the opening of the tokyo boutique was a success, but unfortunately for my most favourite brand in the world, i am disappointed that there was nothing there that spoke to me on this momentous day.
Well, thanks for reading this far, and soon if i get my camera, i hope to post some photos of the store!
Ciao!
Stephen