soehne

A. Lange & Sohne Datograph Perpetual Grey Dial Watch

Covering all these new trendy gray watches has allowed me to realize one thing, no one can agree on how to spell the word "gray" ("grey?"). I am beginning to have no idea myself on what it correct. So I will just mix up the spelling a bit. It seems that all the nice brands have a gray toned watch this season, and German A. Lange & Sohne has announced their own - this time it is the beautiful Datograph Perpetual Calendar watch in white gold with, yes, a gray dial. The classy Datograph watch feels right in a sober feeling tone, which goes nicely with the blue trim on the moon phase and some of the hands. The main functional appeal of this white gold cased watch is the 30 minute flyback chronograph and perpetual calendar with moon phase and big-date display. The dial also features a small but useful day/night indicator.

The extremely complex L952.1 mechanical hand-made, manually-wound movement consists of 556 parts with the perpetual calendar that will not need an adjustment until the year 2100, and then again 122 years after that. The case is 41mm wide, while the dial in silver done is done with the gray tone. Everything about A. Lange & Sohne watches sing quality and refinement - not necessarily flamboyance and decadence as is the case with some other expensive watches. While not a limited edition, I expect the Datograph Perpetual Grey watch to still be quite rare - certainly a collector's piece if there was one.

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

Tags: a lange sohne, ALangeSohne, datograph, gray, gre, lange urhen, LangeUrhen, perpetual, soehne, timepiece, watch

Watches & Politics Collide In The 2009 A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Time Zone Watch

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

You could probably look at the dial of this beautiful Lange 1 Time Zone watch and not identify anything out of the ordinary. You'd see the two watch faces, the larger showing local time, and the smaller one displaying the time of one of 24 other time zones. You'd see the day and night indicators nicely integrated into each watch face, and you'd also notice A. Lange & Sohne's iconic Out-Size Date window as well as "up" - "down" power reserve meter. Well there is something different about this world time watch.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a decision in 2007 that literally took Venezuela off the map, the GMT watch reference city map that is. One of his less popular decisions was to give Venezuela its own time zone that is 30 minutes earlier that it used to be. For this reason, the capital city of Venezuela, Caracas, could no longer serve as a reference city for that particular time zone between New York City and Rio de Janeiro. Thus, the new reference city for this time zone has been chosen by A. Lange & Sohne to be Santiago, Chile. Frankly, I think Santiago has a nicer sounding name than Caracas, so this is a good thing.

This also points to the fact that watch makers are obsessed with details and keeping current on world events, with A. Lange & Sohne taking the lead, at least when it comes to time zones. Other facts about this Lange 1 Time Zone watch include the fact that the 42mm wide case is constructed from 18k pink gold. The movement is the carefully made in-house Lange L031.1 manually-wound movement with a 72 hour power reserve. The dial is a solid grayed silver, and the strap is brown crocodile.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: a. lange sohne, A.LangeSohne, caracas, lange 1, Lange1, santiago, soehne, time zone, timepiece, TimeZone, watch

Impressions Of The New A. Lange & Sohne Richard Lange "Pour le Merite" And 1815 Watch Models

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Today the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie SIHH 2009 officially begins in Geneva, where the best of the best watch makers come to display what new and beautiful watches the welcoming crowd can expect to see in stores soon. The perennial show favorite A. Lange & Sohne presents two new models: the limited edition Richard Lange "Pour Le Merite" and a new version of the best selling 1815 model. Sharp eyes watch the Lange Uhren manufacture eager to see how classic tradition can be made fresh each year. I got a chance to view the watches before the show and can report that I am impressed.

Gallery: A. Lange & Sohne Richard Lange Pour le Merite and 1815 watches