A. Lange & Söhne

between the Lange Saxomat & the Patek 240 cal.  Do you favour one over the other?

Both are versatile and are used in simple to complicated timepieces as they incorporate smaller rotors allowing for additional functions without compromising too much on the dimensions of the watch .When it comes to finishing and technical prowess, how do they compare? I can only make an amaturish judgement when viewing the movements through a loop but am not technically proficient enough to make an assessment.Personally,I feel their level of finishing is comparable, although I do like the swan neck & hand engraved decoration of the Saxomat.

The Saxomat has the zero reset function and from personal experience it also winds more efficiently, in part I think due to the larger & heavier rotor with the platinum edge.Is this a plus for the Saxomat?

Any other factors or characteristics to differentiate between the two, such as reliability,accuracy etc.?

Your views and comments will be highly appreciated as I'm hoping find out more about these two movements and how they stack up to each other. Thank you and looking forward to your wise words & comments.

cheers

fernando

PS. If anyone has better movement pics. pls. take the liberty to include these.

PP cal. 240:

Lange Saxomat:

In fact I has the will to prepare something around this topic.

In the meantime, I propose you 2 pics to illustrate your question. The main difference between them is than one has a micro-rotor while the other one has a three quarter rotor.





Fr.Xavier

No message body

The Swan Neck, the 3 Quarter Rotor and the German finish are the main characteristics of the Lange movement.

The Micro Rotor of the PP Cal 240 is not bad, either.

It is just a matter of taste, IMO.

Both of them are attractive movements, seen on other watches, reliable, and pretty accurate.

I would really be enable to tell you which one is better than the other, as I don't think that one is better.

Nice duo, my friend.

Best,

Nicolas

 

So there's really nothing between these two & it  just comes down to a personal preference or deciding by what's on the other side of the watch.Knowing that you have watches with both of these movements I guess it's correct to say that you find them at the same level of excellence?

Thanks for your feedback & your valued opinion.

Best to you

fernando

This message has been edited by fernando on 2010-04-25 07:03:48

...you might also want to consider the Chopard L.U.C Calibre 1.96 along with the other two! There are some old threads in which the three movements are discussed.  I agree with Nicolas that it's difficult to make a qualitative choice among the two (or three).  It's mostly a matter of preference.  Functionally, I find the zero reset a nice feature and I really enjoyed it on the one watch I owned that had it (a PAM 233). 


(pic borrowed from SteveG)

Best,

CaliforniaJed

Thank you Jed for bringing in the 1.96 Chopard L.U.C movement, a fantastic movement in its own right.

We also should recall that Piaget also has a watch with the micro-rotor movement, and also Piaget was one of the early adopters of the micro-rotored movement.

it looks like the 2 rotor screw are loose in your 240cal picture!

I think I prefer the 240 for complex watches, it is so thin that one can mount a QP or other module on it and not end up with a really thick watch. I also like the slightly-off-center location of the sub-second dial on the base 240.

I actually kinda prefer the Chopard micro-rotor if I had to only choose one, since I like the option of a sweep second hand and I don't think the PP or the ALS supports that
A

I noticed that the two rotor screws seemed to be loose as well.

Again, the 240 is truly a very versatile movement. You can have a Patek Philippe 5140 perpetual calendar in a watch that is thinner than even the Patek Philippe annual calendar. The Celestial watch also uses a 240 caliber. From the 5120 all the way to the 5102 to the 5712. It is a versatile movement that can be both a simple, sporty, and super-complicated watch at the same time.

I consider myself to be a major fan of Patek Philippe's caliber 240. This is one of my favorite calibers from Patek Philippe and this was the first caliber that drew me to the brand. Thus, I will state that I am biased towards the 240.

Do note that the screws on the rotor of your 5040 seem to be protruding a bit.

I was hoping someone would notice the loose screw. It's an old pic. from an old 5040. It has subsequently been brought in for service and remedied.Jed, I agree the Chopard LUC cal.1.96 is also a good candidate for comparison as evidenced by your pic.It's worth noting,thanks.Patrick & Aaron , your comments & point of views are very much appreciated-thanks!

Best to all

fernando

Naturlich, the Lange!

Stephen

Sorry for the not-so-good quality photos. Micro-movement is indeed very interesting and I would like to add one more off-centred movement, which are in my current collection as well. It is made from Frederic Piguet Caliber 71. It also features a off-centred second at 5 o'clock on the dial. Very thin, only 2.4mm in height. This movement is now mainly used by Breguet. Hope you enjoy!

YMA

No message body

I prefer the PP movement....

The Lange is beautiful but I associate Lange with manual movements....



cheers

I like the platinum weight on the rotor, the hacking/zero-rest feature of the movement is awesome!

--

Richard.