A. Lange & Söhne

Press Release

Embargo: 9:00am, Monday, Jan. 20th, 2014

"From 20 to 24 January 2014, A. Lange & Söhne will be showcasing seven new watches at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva. 

Among them are two models from the 1815 family and two from the Lange 1 family. The Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar „Terraluna“ features an orbital moon-phase display

and the location of the moon relative to the earth and the sun – for the first time ever in a wristwatch."

The new line up PPro has been notified are:

1. 1815 Ref 235, 38.5mm


2. 1815 Tourbillon


3. Grand Lange 1 Moonphase


4. Zeitwerk Striking Time in PG


5. Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar in PG


6. Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar "Terraluna"


7. Two new Saxonia Models for Ladies



Please read from whichever got your most attention or from the top!

This message has been edited by KIH on 2014-01-20 01:46:43  This message has been edited by foversta on 2014-01-26 07:42:35

A watch of character

The new 1815 showcases classic design and intrinsic values

With a 38.5-millimetre case and all of the unmistakable hallmarks of the A. Lange & Söhne style, the 1815 embodies the paradigmatic ideals of a sleek mechanical timekeeping instrument. Thus, it follows the horological standards upheld by Ferdinand A. Lange, whose birth year is reflected in its name.

“Medèn ágan – nothing in excess” is one of the wisdoms of antiquity that advocates moderation and modesty at the entrance to the Temple of Delphi. Ferdinand A. Lange, the founder of the German precision watchmaking industry, may well have adopted it as the motto of his life. As a congenial expression of principles, it also characterises the style of his legendary pocket watches. They comply with his tenet that “each piece be as simple as possible and serve its purpose steadfastly and reliably”. This product philosophy also applies to the 1815. Each detail of its timeless design and each of the 188 parts of its manufacture movement derives its aesthetic appeal from the combination of functional integrity and immaculate craftsmanship.

Noble understatement permeates the finesse of the watch, which is available in yellow, pink and white gold. Its 38.5-millimetre case diameter addresses the preference of many watch connoisseurs. The larger version with a diameter of 40 millimetres is also still available. With its two-tier design and the subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock, the solid-silver dial is reminiscent of Lange’s historic pocket watches. This look is emphasised by a gently contoured bezel and the slender lugs. A railway-track minute scale, black Arabic numerals and blued-steel hands accentuate the classic appearance of the watch and enhance the legibility of its argenté-coloured face.

With a power reserve of 55 hours and its lavishly hand-decorated movement parts, the manually wound calibre L051.1 epitomises Lange’s acclaimed watchmaking artistry.

A watch of character: The new 1815 showcases classic design and intrinsic values, page 2
Many traditional Lange hallmarks are visible through the sapphire-crystal caseback: the
three-quarter plate made of untreated German silver, a hand-engraved balance cock, a
screw balance, a whiplash spring, screwed gold chatons, and thermally blued screws are
manifestations of haute horlogerie at its very finest.

Same movement. Numeral "6" still got chopped off  Would be better to leave the "6" out totally. But maybe with the smaller size, would have more ladies looking at it.

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Lange makes very high end, well finished watches.  Don't think you have a crystal ball.

That's what infuriates me about Lange

Miranda, I am not sure what you mean by "diversity" and what you mean by your opinion that Lange "will never compete" with Patek.  Compete with respect to what?

I admire and collect both brands. I guess I can agree with you that Lange "will never compete" with Patek in certain areas.  Such as producing 45,000 watches per year, many for women, many of them in quartz.

Let's consider the areas that interest me and I suspect are of interest to most readers of this forum.  If we compare the two brands with regard to the introduction of new, innovative in-house movements and highly complicated pieces during the past twenty years, Lange is certainly competitive, in fact, arguably surpasses Patek.

I agree with you that this 1815 is not a very exciting addition to the Lange portfolio, but that doesn't bother me as at the same time Lange is introducing the RL Terraluna PC, the new L1 Moonphase, and the 1815 Tourbillion.  That is a pretty sigificant expansion of the catalog in my opinion, especially considering the effort required to design and develop the new movements. Add the design and development of the movements introduced last year - the 1815 Rattrapante PC, the new 1815 up/down, the Grand Complication . . . . has Patek ever introduced so many new in-house complicated movements within a single two-year period?

I love Patek and do not mean to come off sounding critical of them.  My point is that I do not feel you are justified when you fail to afford Lange at least the same amount of respect and admiration.

double split, and if it appears that I have no admiration or respect, then tahts my fault for not being clear enough, Lange is one of the best watchmakers in the world. Infact my top three "traditional watchmakers"are Lange, Patek and JLC.

 

what I meant by diversity, is

 

Gondolo,

Nautilus/Aquanaut

Calatrava

and the subvariants in each class. For instance the different types of calatrava case. Patek had a rich diversity even when they were making only 5-6000 pcs/year.

All I would like from Lange, is a little more creativity in design especially cases. From a technical/haute horology standpoint, they are unsurpassed.

Hope this clears any misunderstanding

Best

Imran

You say Lange will never compete with Patek because Patek has a larger diversity of cases. For me quantity is less important than quality. The diversity for Lange is in creativity. If someone wants to buy 5 Langes a year, I do agree after some years, there will not be much to choose from. I don't have this problem.

for the detail report on ALS, which one is you choice ?

Pure precision

The 1815 TOURBILLON with stop-seconds mechanism and ZERO-RESET

For the very first time, an A. Lange & Söhne timepiece unites the stop-seconds mechanism for the tourbillon with the ZERO-RESET function. The interaction between the two patented mechanisms makes it possible to stop and set the new 1815 TOURBILLON with one-second accuracy.

The 1815 TOURBILLON is designed for supreme precision. Unprecedented rate stability is assured by the one-minute tourbillon. The interaction between two patented mechanisms enables the watch to be set with great accuracy. When the crown is pulled, the balance inside the tourbillon cage stops instantaneously and the seconds hand jumps to the zero position. The watch can now conveniently be synchronised with a reference watch or a time signal.

More than 200 years ago, the invention of the tourbillon was the ingenious solution to a serious watchmaking problem. Because pocket watches were generally worn verti-cally, the influence of gravity on the balance often caused considerable rate deviations. To offset this unwanted effect, it was necessary to constantly change the orientation of the oscillation system. So the balance and the escapement were placed in a rotating cage, called tourbillon. This compensated position errors and increased rate accuracy. Since then, the tourbillon has lost none of its fascination. Its micromechanical complexity and artisanal finissage still symbolise engineering prowess and horological precision.

Unfortunately, it was long impossible to exactly set watches equipped with a tourbillon. This is because the tourbillon could not be stopped. In 2008, Lange’s calibre designers put an end to the impasse. At the time, they succeeded in braking the balance inside the rotating tourbillon cage directly and without delay. When the crown is pulled, a complex lever mechanism is activated which presses a movable V-shaped spring onto the balance wheel and stops the balance instantaneously. The new 1815 TOURBILLON is also endowed with this patented mechanism, which can partly be observed through the aperture in the dial. But this time, Lange’s product developers went a step further. They paired the stop mechanism with the also patented ZERO-RESET mechanism. It causes the blued-steel hand of the subsidiary seconds dial to instantly jump to the zero position when the crown is pulled, thus facilitating the synchronisation of the watch by positioning the minutes hand exactly above a minutes stroke and starting the watch with one-second accuracy.

The understated design of the 1815 TOURBILLON assures crisp legibility. It is therefore consistent with the underlying ideals of Ferdinand A. Lange, whose birth year graces the name of the timepiece. The tourbillon that is visible through the aperture in the dial is the only manifestation of the complexity of the watch. In comparison with earlier versions, its diameter was increased by nearly one millimetre to 13.2 millimetres. The arbor of the tourbillon carries the subsidiary second hand. In the interest of maximised contrast with the light-coloured dial, it is crafted from blued steel. The combination of Arabic numerals with the classic railway-track minute scale is reminiscent of historic A. Lange & Söhne pocket watches.

The hairspring and balance wheel are crafted in-house with extreme meticulousness and perfectly matched to one another. Precision also comes to the fore in the intricate finish of all movement parts and is crowned by the diamond endstone of the tourbillon. With a diameter of 39.5 millimetres, the pink-gold or platinum case provides a harmoniously proportioned stage for the Lange manufacture calibre L102.1. The limited edition of 100 watches in platinum emphasises the exclusiveness of this exceptional timepiece. The first A. Lange & Söhne tourbillon watch with stop seconds and ZERO-RESET is another example of the manufactory’s determination to never stop questioning technical solutions and pursue its commitment to continuous improvement.

But I guess we'll get used to it. I thought the tourbillon window was really eating too much of the dial but from the other tourbillon (like the Tourbillon PLM), it's the same size.

I heard before it was impossible to implement as it was to harsh for the tourbillon to stop that fast.

lovely dial and amazing to have that complication with a tourbillon. Kudos!

(Previously announced)

Let the moon hold the stage

The GRAND LANGE 1 MOON PHASE tracks the lunar cycle

The new GRAND LANGE 1 MOON PHASE gives the moon-phase display, which, by the way, is designed to remain accurate for 122.6 years, distinctive prominence on the dial. A pa-tented coating process for the lunar disc endows this astronomical complication with a remarkably lifelike appearance.

The moon is a fascinating celestial body that has been preoccupying astronomers for time immemorial. It is not only responsible for the tides, but also influences the life rhythms of numerous creatures and plants. For these reasons, many watch enthusiasts appreciate a moon-phase display. Since its restart, the manufactory in Saxony has presented twelve models with this complication. But never be-fore has the moon phase been as prominently showcased as in the new GRAND LANGE 1 MOON PHASE. A spacious stage has been re-served for the popular astronomical indica-tion on the dial. It provides vividly realistic proof of how closely the moon-phase display tracks the actual orbit of our planet’s com-panion. This is because the display is con-nected with the hour-wheel continuum. As a result, it is constantly in motion, just like the moon itself. The increments are so small they cannot be detected by the naked eye.

Additionally, the moon-phase display indi-cates the time that elapses from new moon to new moon with an accuracy of 99.9978 per cent. The average synodic month lasts 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds. For the sake of simplicity, most classic moon-phase displays round this cycle down to 29.5 days. The resulting deviation of 44 minutes and 3 seconds per lunation adds up to one day in merely two and a half years. The much more precisely calculated seven-gear transmission of the GRAND LANGE 1 MOON PHASE reduces the deviation per cycle to less than one minute. Once correctly set, and assuming that the watch runs continuously, the display would only have to be corrected by one day every 122.6 years. Moreover, the display can be adjusted separately by using the push piece embedded in the case flank be-tween 7 and 8 o’clock, for instance if the watch has not been wound up for a longer period of time.

The effort invested in the coating of the solid-gold lunar disc exemplifies the degree of perfection to which Lange’s product developers are committed. Their goal was to depict the nocturnal sky as magnificently as possible. The result of their intensive research and development work is a patented coating process, which, with its incomparably brilliant colours and crisp texture details, fulfils even the most ambitious aesthetic expectations. Interference effects – the superposition of waves – eliminate all non-blue hues of light falling on the watch. This creates an intense blue tone for the eye of the observer. A laser is used to cut out more than 300 stars of different sizes with extremely sharp contours, producing a miniaturised image of the galaxy.

Combining an off-centre dial, the outsize date and a lavishly finished manufacture calibre, the GRAND LANGE 1 MOON PHASE features all of the iconic hallmarks of A. Lange & Söhne’s most famous timepiece family. The considerable 72-hour power reserve was achieved with only one mainspring barrel. This is why the height of the movement is a scant 4.7 millimetres. The case in yellow gold, pink gold or platinum has a diameter of 41.0 millimetres. Endowed with a classic screw balance, a balance spring developed and manufactured in-house, a three-quarter plate made of untreated German silver, and lav-ishly hand-decorated movement parts, the Lange manufacture calibre L095.3 unites all of the classic features that prompt connoisseurs around the world to associate A. Lange & Söhne timepieces with Saxon watchmaking artistry and superior precision.

The moonphase window in the time dial makes the appearance too busy and compromises the legibility of the time.

Marcus

The acoustic poetry of time
A. Lange & Söhne presents the LANGE ZEITWERK STRIKING TIME in pink gold

Three high-pitched chimes and one lower-pitched tone are the sounds with which the LANGE ZEITWERK STRIKING TIME announces each passing quarter and full hour. The first A. Lange & Söhne wristwatch with a chiming mechanism is now available in pink gold as well.

A. Lange & Söhne explored new avenues when it presented the LANGE ZEITWERK STRIKING TIME, its first chiming wristwatch, three years ago. Now, the resonant master-piece with precisely jumping numerals is also available in pink gold with an argenté-coloured dial and pink-gold hands.

In the LANGE ZEITWERK STRIKING TIME, key chiming mechanism components are visibly integrated into the dial design. The black-polished steel hammers can be seen on ei-ther side of the subsidiary seconds dial: one on the right for the quarter hours and one on the left for the full hours. The two gongs, embedded in a recess between the dial and bezel, are also readily recognisable. Every 15 minutes, the mechanism triggers the striking of one of the two gongs. Three high-er-pitched tones sound each quarter hour, while a low-pitched tone chimes the top of the hour. The chiming mechanism can be deactivated to prevent any disturbance during the night or at a meeting. A push piece at 4 o’clock raises the hammers and silences the watch. This process can be observed through the sapphire-crystal glass, so it is al-ways apparent whether the mechanism is switched on or off.

With its precisely jumping numerals display, the new member of the LANGE ZEITWERK family also represents lucid design and crisp legibility. The large numerals of the adjacent hour and minute indications enable the current time to be read clearly. In fractions of a second, the patented constant-force escapement advances the numerals minute by minute until the full hour when all three numeral discs jump forward simultaneously by exactly one increment. The LANGE ZEITWERK STRIKING TIME enriches the exciting interplay of numbers with a unique tone in a quarter-hour cadence for the wearer’s listening pleasure.

The heart of the LANGE ZEITWERK STRIKING TIME, the L043.2 manufacture calibre, fulfils all those expectations that watch connoisseurs legitimately associate with the name A. Lange & Söhne: its assets include the lavish decoration of all movement parts by hand as well as the balance wheel with eccentric poising weights and a proprietary Lange bal-ance spring.

LANGE 1 TOURBILLON PERPETUAL CALENDAR in pink gold

Thanks to an ingenious arrangement of the calendar displays around the time indi-cation, the LANGE 1 TOURBILLON PERPETUAL CALENDAR presents an abundance of in-formation at a single glance. Now, this horological masterpiece with the eponymous complications is also available in a pink-gold case.

The LANGE 1 TOURBILLON PERPETUAL CALENDAR combines two classic complications with the iconic design of A. Lange & Söhne’s most famous watch family. Configured around the time indication, the calendar displays and the peripheral month ring deliver full time and date readings at a single glance. All of the perpetual calendar displays advance instantaneously. Thus, the date, day of the week, month, leap year, and moon phase can never be interpreted incorrectly. The mechanism is designed in such a way that it must be advanced only by one day in the year 2100. And the moon-phase display will even run true for 122.6 years before it needs to be corrected by one day.

Despite the wealth of information it delivers, the dial is so well organised that many a second look is required to recognise fully the technical complexity of this horological magnum opus. Only a modest inscription beneath the 12 refers to the existence of the tourbillon. But a glance through the sapphire-crystal caseback reveals its technical ingenuity. The patented stop-seconds mechanism instantaneously brings the balance inside the tourbillon cage to a standstill when the crown is pulled. This allows the watch to be set with one-second accuracy. The upper part of the tourbillon cage is decorated with black polish, no doubt the most sophisticated and time-consuming type of artisanal finis-sage. The bearing of the tourbillon cage features a diamond endstone as a reminiscence of the historic 1A pocket watches of the venerable A. Lange & Söhne brand.

A massive central rotor with a 21-carat gold segment in the middle efficiently tensions the mainspring of the self-winding calibre L082.1 movement. The platinum centrifugal mass on the periphery of the rotor delivers extra torque so that the maximum power re-serve of 50 hours is built up after just a short time on the wrist. Typical Lange quality hallmarks include the lavishly decorated movement with hand-engraved tourbillon and intermediate-wheel cocks as well as six screwed gold chatons.

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Finally get to read the details on Lange's offering for SIHH 2014!

RICHARD LANGE PERPETUAL CALENDAR “Terraluna”
Regulator with orbital moon-phase display and 14-day movement

The RICHARD LANGE PERPETUAL CALENDAR “Terraluna” is a horological masterpiece that combines A. Lange & Söhne’s benchmark precision, inventiveness, and design competence. Featuring an orbital moon-phase display, a perpetual calendar with the Lange outsize date, a power-reserve of 14 days, and a constant-force escape-ment, this extraordinary time-keeping instrument represents the pinnacle of Saxon watchmaking artistry.

The RICHARD LANGE PERPETUAL CALENDAR “Terraluna” is equally impressive on both sides. On the dial side of the 45.5-millimetre pink- or white-gold case, the watch stands out with the regulator layout of scientific precision watches. The movement side presents an innovative and useful orbital moon-phase display that depicts the constellation of the earth, moon, and sun.
The circles of the time indication and the perpetual calendar apertures characterise the design of the RICHARD LANGE PERPETUAL CALENDAR “Terraluna”.


Three circles for time

The large minute circle is at the top of the dial of the RICHARD LANGE PERPETUAL CALENDAR “Terraluna”. The smaller dials for the hours and seconds are beneath it, shifted toward the right and left. As was already the case with the RICHARD LANGE TOURBILLON “Pour le Mérite” presented in 2011, this dial design was inspired by a great historic role model: Johann Heinrich Seyffert’s 1807 regulator from the world-famous timepiece collection of the Mathematics and Physics Salon. With his ingenious designs, Seyffert helped transform Dresden into a hub of precision horology in the early 19th century. A great advantage in precision pocket watches, the regulator format was appreciated not only by time-keeping services and observatories, but also by watchmaking manufactories where it was used for synchronising new timepieces. This is because it provided an accurate display of the minutes and seconds.


Four windows for eternity

Beneath the characteristic Lange outsize date – the first one in a model of the RICHARD LANGE watch family, incident-ally – two smaller apertures show the day of the week on the left and the month on the right. Thanks to this arrangement, the calendar displays can be easily read at a glance. The calendar is mechanically programmed to correctly display the different durations of the months in a year as well as those in leap years until 2100. The leap-year indication is located in a small round window on the right-hand side of the 15 of the minute circle. All displays of the calendar switch forward instantaneously to assure unambiguous readings at all times. To keep the power for the switching process as low as possible, the required energy is gradually built up via a cam and then released abruptly at midnight.
The leap-year indication is located on the right-hand sideof the 15 of the minute circle.


The moon on its orbit

An exciting technical innovation can be seen on the movement side: there, the patent-pending orbital moon-phase display shows the location of the moon relative to the earth and the sun – for the first time ever in a wristwatch. The display consists of three discs. On the star-studded celestial disc, the moon – visible through a round aperture – orbits around the earth anti-clockwise once a month. The mechanism reproduces the synodic month of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds so precisely that it takes 1058 years before the display needs to be corrected by one day. Beneath it, the lunar disc rotates, featuring two round new moons. The progression of the moon phases can be observed through the aperture in the celestial disc. In the constellation view, the position of the sun is occupied by the balance. On new-moon days, the dark moon stands between the earth and the sun. It appears as a bright sphere on the opposite side of the earth on full-moon days. Thus, the position and phase of the moon are indicated simultaneously. In the centre of the display, the earth rotates about its own axis once a day. It is daytime on the half that faces the sun, or the balance, and night-time on the other. The peripheral 24-hour scale provides a time-of-day reference for the northern hemisphere.

The moon orbits the earth in the anti-clockwise direction.
Left to right: new moon, waxing moon, full moon, waning moon.

The ambitious precision goals of Lange’s product developers come to the fore not only in the configuration of the moon-phase display mechanism, which consists of three solid white-gold discs, but also in its design. To achieve a vivid and aesthetically sophisticated image of the orbiting moon-phase display, they chose a special coating process. On the celestial disc, for example, interference effects absorb all of the non-blue colour spectra of the incident light. The result is a deep-blue surface studded with more than a thousand high-contrast, sharply contoured stars.


Constant force for two weeks
With two rugged mainsprings, the twin barrel delivers a power reserve of 14 days. When a spring barrel stores so much energy, special technical precautions must be taken to keep the rate of the watch stable during the entire power-reserve period. The torque of the fully wound spring would be too high to be delivered directly to the going train. And as its torque declines when it approaches the unwound state, the accuracy of the watch would deteriorate. An elaborate constant-force escapement compensates for both phenomena. In ten-second intervals, it releases an identical portion of the available energy to the balance, thus assuring that the torque remains constant. The result is an unvarying amplitude and high rate accuracy from the first day to the last. At the 6-o’clock position, a power-reserve indicator in the form of a circumferential ring tells the owner when the time has come to replenish the movement with fresh energy via the winding crown.

Lange manufacture calibre L096.1. The orbital moon-phase display on the movement side depicts the constellation of the earth, moon, and sun.


The pursuit of supreme precision
Since 2003, Lange has been part of the small community of watch manufactories that master the technology needed to produce balance springs. Only thus can the utmost precision be assured. For this reason, in addition to the balance spring, the remontoir spring of the constant-force escapement is also made in-house for the new L096.1 manufacture calibre of the RICHARD LANGE PERPETUAL CALENDAR “Terraluna”. The indexless oscillator beats with a frequency of 21,600 semi-oscillations per hour. Further Lange-style quality hallmarks include the hand-engraved balance cock and a lavishly hand-decorated movement. They are impressive manifestations of the manufactory’s quest for precision down to the very smallest detail.

This message has been edited by KIH on 2014-01-20 01:42:09 This message has been edited by KIH on 2014-01-20 01:43:15

Year after year . This is one manufacture, and probably the only manufacture, that can absolutely do no wrong ! The only manufacture where every single watch in the collection hits the right spot. 

many turns is needed to wind the watch using the crown? The good part is it's only required twice a month.

Thanks for sharing so promptly these 2014 ALS novelties with us Ken.

cheers

fernando

in my book by large margin

Well it is a 45.5 x 16 piece but it is really beautiful and very interesting technically.
This message has been edited by Mark in Paris on 2014-01-20 02:47:26 This message has been edited by KIH on 2014-01-20 03:16:02

Video makes it much easier to grasp this model.

Thank you!

Ken

Even though this is way out of my league, I love the design and idea behind the watch, but 45x16.5 mm... It's mind blowing what is achieved these days, but I really dislike such proportions.