A. Lange & Sohne's New Lange Zeitwerk Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
May 11th 2009 at 12:02PM

The new Lange Zeitwerk watch is a clever and refined attempt from German luxury watch maker A. Lange & Sohne to combine the tradition and quality they are known for, with the modern outlook that their watch makers and designers have. In essence you have an extremely high quality mechanical watch, that dispenses with most of the analog components that classic watches are known to have - instead embracing the tone of the digital generation. My opinion is that this watch is A. Lange & Sohne's secret attempt to reach a perhaps younger, more "now" focused audience while maintaining the character that the brand is known for. In all this I think they have succeeded. Let's take a closer look at the watch.

The Lange Zeitwerk uses a brand new in-house manually wound L043.1 calibre movement. The movement incorporates a "constant force" escapement complication. This is very important for this type of watch because it has two "jumping" complications, one for the hours and one for the minutes. The nature of the movement requires specific amounts of force to be used, but not all the time. For this reason a constant force escapement situated with the balance wheel ensures that the same amount of force is released all the time ensuring good rate results. If you don't understand this, that is OK. Just know that A. Lange & Sohne has been testing this watch for a long time, and the complication is unique to them, and highly refined (which is a term I use to describe Lange a lot, because it just fits). The heart of the allure behind the watch is the dial layout and functionality. This is an almost purely digital watch displaying the jumping hours and minutes - that change instantly. The seconds dial is still present, and there is a useful power reserve indicator as well. The dial is constructed in part from sterling silver. All very innovative and beautiful to look at.

The 42mm wide case is just 12.5 mm thick. The case is available in four materials. 18k white, yellow, or rose gold, and in platinum. Not too sure on price or availability yet, though it will be at least several months before it is released, and the price is likely to be in excess of $50,000 - $60,000 for the gold versions of the Lange Zeitwerk.

Ariel Adams publishes the popular watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Gallery: A. Lange & Sohne Lange Zeitwerk watch