Perpetual sophistication in the distinctive LANGE 1 design
With the off-centre displays and peripheral month ring, the LANGE 1 PERPETUAL CALENDAR endows a sophisticated complication with a unique face.
The 18-carat white-gold model version with a solid pink-gold dial, limited to 150 pieces, and the 18-carat pink-gold version featuring a grey dial in 925 silver, are now joined by a model in 950 platinum with a black dial. The new version enriches the watch family with a particularly refined colour combination.
The LANGE 1 PERPETUAL CALENDAR is centred exclusively on its eponymous complication: thanks to the specially developed peripheral month ring, it was possible to incorporate the calendar while preserving the prominent design of the LANGE 1.
The month display is complemented by the Lange outsize date, a retrograde day-of-week display and a leap-year display. The moon-phase display with an integrated day/night indicator and the instantaneously switching calendar indications are further striking features. Once set correctly, the mechanism is programmed to accurately display the turn of the month until 2100.
A perpetual calendar watch the Lange way
To accurately indicate the different durations of the months in a year as well as the leap years in a mechanical watch with a perpetual calendar, presented a challenge that the ambitious A. Lange & Söhne developers took on in 2001 with the LANGEMATIK PERPETUAL. Their objective: to seek innovative technical solutions whilst assuring optimum legibility.
In order to preserve the signature design of the LANGE 1 watch family with its off-centre and non-overlapping displays, Langeʼs watchmakers opted for a completely new approach. They developed a peripheral month ring that advances instantaneously at the end of each month.
Balanced design and function
“The commitment to tailor the complex mechanical requirements to the characteristic design of the LANGE 1 presented our developers with constructive challenges, as the large peripheral ring has to be advanced instantaneously by 30 degrees from one month to the next. Throughout the month, energy is collected via a cam in order to provide the required power exactly on time, at midnight on the last day of the month,” explains Anthony de Haas, Director of Product Development.
“Thanks to this design feature in the LANGE 1 PERPETUAL CALENDAR, the watch familyʼs distinctive face is maintained. The timepiece is therefore also emblematic of our philosophy to continuously break new ground in the realm of precision watchmaking.”
Precise moon phase with an additional complication
Adding a day/night indicator to the moon-phase display is also typical of the manufactureʼs continued pursuit of evolving traditional precision watchmaking. Constructed across two levels, it consists of a solid-gold celestial disc with graduated blue hues that rotates around its own axis once during 24 hours. Against this backdrop, the white-gold moon performs its synodic orbit in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 3 seconds ‒ with such precision that the display only needs to be corrected by one day after 122.6 years.
The ingenious indication depicts the earth’s companion moving across a bright-blue sky during the day and a dark-blue starry sky at night, thus indicating the diurnal and nocturnal hours respectively.
Movement L021.3
The high standards of artisanal perfection upheld by the Saxon manufacture immediately become apparent at a glance through the sapphire-crystal caseback of calibre L021.3 ‒ it is elaborately finished by hand and assembled twice. The technical features of the manufacture movement include a unidirectional winding rotor in 21-carat gold with a centrifugal mass in 950 platinum, a power reserve of 50 hours and a balance with eccentric poising weights that beats at a frequency of 21,600 semi-oscillations per hour.
Lange-typical quality hallmarks such as plates and bridges made of untreated German silver decorated with Glashütte ribbing, five gold chatons held by blued-steel screws as well as the hand-engraved balance cock, with the whiplash spring mounted above to regulate beat adjustments, reflect the manufactureʼs lofty aspirations in every single detail.
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