REVOLUTION_INTERNATIONAL_VOL 58

A.
Lange & Söhne is celebrating two
important anniversaries this year. The
first is the 175th founding anniversary
of the Lange watchmaking company in Glashütte
in 1845 by Ferdinand Adolph Lange. He and
his sons spent the next century building a
reputation for innovative pocket watches,
and they introduced the metric system
as a replacement for the traditional
ligne (1 ligne is equal to 2.2558 mm) in
watchmaking. They also filed patents for
numerous scientific measurement tools in
addition to their innovative timepiece and
watchmaking designs.
In 1945, Russian bombers destroyed the
Lange factory on the last day of the Second World
War. The watch companies in Glashütte were
nationalized by the Soviet-controlled government
in 1948, and the Lange name disappeared from the
dials. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and German
reunification in 1989, F.A. Lange’s great-grandson,
Walter, began the work of registering his family’s
brand name and rebuilding it. Which brings us to
the second anniversary for the company — it’s been
30 years since Walter Lange successfully reestablished A. Lange
& Söhne in 1990 and began the work that would deliver the
first new Lange-branded wristwatches in 1994.
One of his first patents, filed in 1992, was for
the outsized, double-aperture date display that
would come to be a highly recognized feature of
Lange timepieces. This design was inspired by
the legendary five-minute clock that Johann
Christian Gutkaes made for the Semperoper
Opera House of Dresden in 1841. The primary
goal of the design was a larger date display
to increase legibility without significantly
increasing the size of the case. It is
currently featured on 22 models of
A. Lange & Söhne wristwatches.
In 2018, Lange introduced the
first Saxonia Outsize Date model. The
watch featured the minimalistic design and
symmetry that was a hallmark of the Saxonia
line with a single subdial at six o’clock and the
dual-window date display. They built upon the
Lange L086.1 caliber movement, adding the date
complication with twin apertures to create the
L086.8. The new models came in a 38.5mm pink
gold or white gold case, both with a black dial.
As part of the dual anniversary celebrations,
A. Lange & Söhne has released two additional models
for the Saxonia Outsize Date collection: an argenté
dial (solid silver with silver plating) for both the
pink gold and the white gold cases. While it
doesn’t sound like a tremendous change, the
silver dial lends a much more versatile depth
to the timepiece. The Saxonia Outsize
Date collection is overall much more
balanced with the two dial colors.
It features the large date windows at
12 o’clock and a subsidiary seconds dial at
six o’clock to create a pleasing symmetry. The
hours and minutes indexes are chamfered and
polished solid gold baton appliques (doubled
at 12, 3, 6 and 9) complement the argenté dial.
The date is adjusted with a day-by-day rapidcorrection
pusher situated at 10 o’clock, rather
than integrated into the crown or recessed in the
case, creating a user-friendly experience for quick
adjustments and adding a touch of asymmetry to the
overall look of the watch.
As with all their timepieces, A. Lange & Söhne still
finishes each piece by hand, using many techniques that
would have been at home in F.A. Lange’s workshop in 1845. The
movement of the watch is finished beautifully with the distinct
Glashütte three-quarter plate made of untreated
German silver. It utilizes a large central rotor with
a ball bearing and a platinum centrifugal mass for
efficient winding, and offers a 72-hour power reserve.
The Saxonia Outsize Date masters the harmony
of exquisite materials, thoughtful design and
careful hand-finishing — down to the matching
font used for the date windows and the A. Lange
& Söhne logo — to create a true classic.
A. LANGE & SŐHNE
SAXONIA OUTSIZE DATE
MOVEMENT Self-winding caliber L086.8;
72-hour power reserve
FUNCTIONS Hours, minutes, seconds, large date
CASE 38.5 mm; 18K white or pink gold; water
resistant to 30m
STRAP Black or brown leather
PRICE USD 27,700
SPLIT SECONDS 25