A. Lange & Sohne Zeitwerk – Winner Of The 2009 L’Aiguille d’Or
At the start of this week we reported to you live (in a manner of speaking) from the Grand Prix D’Horlogerie held annually in Geneva. A night filled with glitz and glamor, it is a hugely important evening on the, largely Swiss dominated, watch-maker calendar. As such it provided the perfect setting for the historic moment that was about to unfold. For the first time in the event’s storied history, the prestigious “L’Aiguille d’Or” (“Golden Hand”) award was presented to a luxury watch brand from outside of Switzerland. To some this defies belief but then again, if you’re even remotely familiar with German brand A Lange & Sohne it’s not really that hard to believe at all.
The Stuff Of Champions
So what does it take to win the top award at the Grand Prix D’Horlogerie you ask? Allow me to introduce you to the Lange Zeitwerk, a timepiece that will lull you into a false sense of security with it’s simplistic style and in the same instance completely change your perception of horology with its groundbreaking mechanical mastery. Starting to get the picture?
Indication Of The Times
German companies are renowned for their innovation and refined, practical designs and A Lange & Sohne is no exception. To the casual observer it is not immediately obvious what all the fuss is about regarding the new Zeitwerk and this to me is a significant part of its appeal. In a time when many other brands seem to be focusing on creating ever more complex ways to display the time Sohne has asked, in typical German fashion, how can we make it more simple?
The result: what is possibly the first truly mechanical alternative to the indication of time without the use of rotating hands. Visually stunning and remarkably unambiguous, this new piece represents what can be achieved when a brand focuses on the absolute core elements of a watch. Available in a gold or platinum case and using an uncluttered and clever dial design this watch has been designed to be read with just a quick glance at your wrist. Yet with its smooth lines and fine attention to detail good luck trying to tear your eyes away!
Intricately Simple
However, don’t let the seemingly unassuming appearance of this piece fool you. Beneath the aesthetically pleasing exterior beats the heart of a truly extraordinary movement, the manufacture calibre L043.1. The first thing you notice about this movement is that it features a jumping numerals mechanism for hours and minutes, with the time displayed on two minute discs and a large hour ring. Precisely once a minute, a constant-force escapement generates the necessary switching impulse to propel the minute discs forward as required.
As a special touch the disc switching action is optimized to allow an attentive listener to acoustically distinguish between a single minute advance (which occurs a staggering 1416 times a day) and a collective progression of all three at the full hour (24 times a day).
As you might imagine it takes a huge amount of force to power this complex movement, especially when all three discs need to be simultaneously advanced at each full hour. To achieve this feat the pioneering Germans took the time-honored (no pun intended) principle of wind/unwind function of the mainspring barrel and literally turned it on its head. As the mainspring relaxes, the barrel rotates in the minimized-friction bearing.
Conversely, the mainspring barrel bearing with the higher friction rating is involved while the watch is being wound. As a consequence, a slightly greater effort is required when winding the watch but in return, more of the energy stored in the mainspring remains available for powering the movement.
A constant-force escapement between the barrel wheel and the balance
It doesn’t stop there, though. The company has also created a constant-force escapement which is positioned between the barrel wheel and the balance. This patent-pending mechanism has two crucial functions. On the one hand, it generates the switching steps for the instantaneous jumps of the hour and minute displays, using the strike-train principle with a warning followed by drop-and-release, often found in striking clocks. Never before has a mechanism such as this one been incorporated into a wristwatch, although unfortunately a cuckoo does not pop out to announce the changing of the hour. This intricate constant-force escapement also works to drive the balance with nearly uniform power during the entire autonomy period and thus enhances the rate stability of the movement.
The Final Word
A Lange & Sohne continue to impress me with their thoughtful and innovative creations. In a time where many other brands seem to have lost sight of what the real purpose of a wristwatch is this German pioneer maintains their focus on the basics and creates pieces that are both highly desirable and highly practicable. As such, it was with great pleasure that I first heard about their incredible success at the Grand Prix D’Horlogerie. After all, I could not think of a more fitting brand to be awarded the exalted “L’Aiguille d’Or” for the first time outside of Switzerland.
Could you?
Category: Watch News
This looks like a very clever design (extremely impressive, actually), but isn’t the end result essentially just a digital watch? You said in your article “Finding the right watch for you”: “A guy’s first assumption when you wear a digital watch is that you are not able to read analogue time, which is not a good thing.” Wearing this watch here could give people the same impression, couldn’t it?
Hi Charles, thank you for your comment. I certainly can understand your reasoning and to a degree you are probably right; to the casual (read ‘uneducated’ observer) this could very well appear as a far more simplistic watch than it actually is.
As I’m sure you would have read above the jumping hour and minute complications are exceptionally complex and extremely difficult to master, hence the reason this timepiece is held in such high regard. Having said that though, I think it comes down to a matter of personal taste as the above piece certainly does not look like your conventional mechanical watch.
Although, I reckon in the flesh no one would confuse this exceptional timepiece for a cheap Casio