A. Lange & Söhne

I am new to Lange, would anyone be able to tell me if the big date in Lange patented.  I read from some source that it is a patented design but I see them in Breguet Marine, in VC Overseas etc.  The only diff is that the Lange one shows a blanck instead of a zero when the date is single digit.  Is that so special and difficult to manufacture?  I cannot see any difference in the mechanical side of it.

Regards

Ivan

I don't think it is patented.  The big date feature on the Lange is indeed viewed by many as an attractive feature.  It is also one of the signature features of Lange's primary German competitor, Glashutte Original.  I am not technically conversant with the respective functions but I have seen commentary among some Purists and among some commentators that the G.O. date function is generally viewed as the more innovative of the two.  But both are terrific in my eyes (I own both brands so I'm not being biased).

... see the Lange website: http://www.alange-soehne.com/cms/en/manufactory/saxon-ingenuity/patented-outsize-date.html , which also shows the mechanism.

Although as you say there are several variations of big date displays the mechanics are different. I think that the Lange version was quite unusual though when it first was presented in the Lange 1 and was developed at JLC by Blümleins behest for exclusive use in the Lange watches.

 

Best

Andreas

Even if it was patented by JLC, Lange "popularized" the big date system.

Fr.Xavier

... Jaeger-LeCoultre designed the big date that Lange uses.
But I am not sure this is true though.
Maybe some of the experts can shed some light on this.

Best

Rob
This message has been edited by peregrino on 2010-06-14 08:38:56

this is true. The patent is held by JLC.