White gold with a deep blue dial, Price 449,000.00 Euro !!!

The new sound of the time
The decimal minute repeater

This model was introduced in 2020. The dial is made of solid silver and the time bridge is made of rhodium-plated nickel silver. The hands are made of rhodium-plated gold. The edition, which is limited to 30 pieces, is only available in the A. Lange & Söhne boutiques. Caliber L043.5

Hinted with a short sound (ding, ding) and moving left hammer.
Moving parts on the back.
In DIM Sunset Mode, the face behaves like DIM off during the day.
Exact switching between day and night, only in night mode with Color.

Made with Photoshop, encoded in WatchMaker.
Have fun with this new Face.

Function:

• TAP 6 = Display unlock/lock Tap function
• Tap center for double zoom, twice for extra zoom
• Tap 3 = adjust brightness
• Tap h = play sound and move hammer
• Tap 11 = change face to backside
• Tap 12 = DIM OFF/ON/SUNSET auto ON
• -UCOLOR for DIM mode, AOD w/o UCOLOR.

With the ZEITWERK MINUTENREPETITION, A. Lange & Söhne is presenting for the first time a model with a striking mechanism that sounds the hours, ten-minute intervals and minutes. The acoustic reproduction corresponds exactly to the digital display. A low tone for every hour completed, a double tone for the completed ten minutes and a high tone for every completed minute. As soon as the striking mechanism is triggered by the repeater at 10 a.m., the left hammer strikes the hours and the right one the minutes. for the double tone of ten minutes, both hammers strike with a slight delay.

An innovative concept

With the development of this minute repeater, Lange’s designers broke new horological territory, because all the minute repeaters known to date were integrated into hand watches. At ZEITWERK, however, it was necessary to couple the minute repeater to a digitally displaying clock. The designers not only mastered this challenge, but even found a solution that took advantage of the principle of the jump digit mechanism.
The time to be struck is scanned over three seasons connected to the advertising mechanics. The hours are scanned on the outside of the hour ring, in which the twelve-stage hour scale is integrated. The ten minute scale and the minute scale are also connected to the respective minute disc. They are arranged on two separate axes and have ten or six steps. The arrangement and shape of the three seasons with relatively large scanning areas enables reliable and error-free scanning of the time.

The power for the blow

With ordinary minute repeaters, the energy for the striking mechanism is provided by an additional barrel. Before each hitting, it must be pulled up using a slide on the housing. The ZEITWERK MINUTENREPETITION draws this energy directly from the barrel. When the striking mechanism is triggered, the ratchet wheel is decoupled from the elevator train. The ratchet wheel can rotate freely and drive the striking mechanism. This also prevents the winding mechanism of the elevator including the crown from turning during the repeating process and energy being lost. The mechanism for decoupling the elevator wheel mechanism is one of a total of five patented constructions in this mechanism.

Sophisticated security mechanisms

In order to ensure the smooth interaction of the complex mechanics, complex safety mechanisms are used in the clockwork: while the striking mechanism is running, the indexing disks are delayed. At the same time, it is not possible to pull the crown out to set the clock. This ensures that the sensitive scanning process of the striking mechanism is not impaired and the tone sequence corresponds exactly to the displayed time. At the maximum number of 31 beats at 12.59 p.m. (twelve deep beats for the hours, five double beats for the ten-minute intervals and nine high beats for the one-minute intervals), it takes about 20 seconds for the repeating process to be completed.
Since the energy for the striking mechanism is provided by the winding spring, the number and duration of the repetition processes affect the remaining power reserve. To ensure that the repeating process can run completely without the watch accidentally stopping, the striking mechanism can no longer be triggered from a power reserve of less than twelve hours – marked by a red dot on the power reserve indicator.

The pursuit of the perfect sound

In order to achieve the highest sound quality, the designers have consistently optimized the clockwork and housing. The striking mechanism of the ZEITWERK MINUTENREPETITION is triggered by a push button instead of the usual slide. This construction allows the watch to be protected from water up to a pressure of three bar.
Tuning the gongs requires trained hearing and is done exclusively by hand. In the watch, the springs have to sound clear and long-lasting – and harmonize perfectly with each other. Until then, they are removed, processed, reinstalled and tested several times. The pursuit of the perfect sound takes up a large part of the assembly time.

The highest level of craftsmanship

The in-house caliber L043.5, consisting of 771 parts, is finished by hand with the utmost care and effort. 250 pieces more than the 2015 model. Three of the 93 jewels are set in screwed gold chatons. The hand-engraved balance cock – the artful signature of all Lange watches – received a design counterpart in the form of an escape wheel block engraved in the same pattern.

(A. Lange & Söhne, Ron D.)