A. Lange & Söhne’s new LANGE 1 Perpetual Calendar watch also incorporates a moon-phase display with an integrated day/night indicator. This complication wristwatch is available in a pink gold version with a grey-silver dial or in a limited edition of 150 watches in white gold with a solid pink-gold dial.

Exactly 20 years ago, A. Lange & Söhne presented the LANGEMATIK PERPETUAL, its first wristwatch with a perpetual calendar. It was followed by seven further models, mostly in combination with other complications such as a chronograph, a tourbillon or both.

Apart from the classic principle with calendar displays controlled by a 48-step cam, the LANGE 1 TOURBILLON PERPETUAL CALENDAR introduced in 2012 already took a different approach that has now been adopted by the new model.

To integrate the calendar ensemble into the exceptional off-centre dial architecture of the LANGE 1 without compromising the harmonious balance of the displays, the month indication was implemented with a ring at the periphery of the dial that advances once a month. This design replaces the classic control principle with a 48-step cam. The innovation challenged the ingenuity of Lange’s engineers because advancing the ring at the end of the month requires considerably more power than traditional solutions.

The ring-shaped month display is complemented with the Lange outsize date, a retrograde day-of-week display, and a leap-year indication. The instantaneously advancing calendar displays are always crisply legible. They can be advanced collectively or individually with correctors. Once properly set, the mechanism is programmed to reliably indicate each month change until the year 2100.

The watch additionally features a moon-phase display with an integrated day/night indicator. The combination of the moon-phase display with a day/night indicator has two layers.

It consists of a solid-gold celestial disc with a blue gradation. It completes one full revolution about its own axis every 24 hours. Against this background, the moon – either in white or pink gold – performs its synodic orbit in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and three seconds with such precision that it takes 122.6 years before a correction by one day is needed. With the 2016 debut of the combined display in the LANGE 1 MOON PHASE, the moon appears on a monochrome light blue canopy during the day and on a dark blue starry sky at night.

The LANGE 1 PERPETUAL CALENDAR has a diameter or 41.9 millimetres and a height of 12.1 millimetres. It is available in two versions. It comes in pink gold with a grey solid silver dial and – in a 150-watch limited edition – in white gold with a solid pink-gold dial.

The latter material combination has been presented by A. Lange & Söhne initially in 2019, in the DATOGRAPH PERPETUAL TOURBILLON, also a limited-edition model. Colour coordinated hands and appliques in pink gold or rhodiumed gold round off the harmonious design.

In the pink gold version, the hands are also luminous, as are the square hour markers of the minute scale. The white-gold version has a dark-brown leather strap, the pink-gold model comes with a red-brown leather strap.

The self-winding movement L021.3 is A. Lange & Söhne’s 67th manufacture calibre. It is based on the calibre L021.1 of the LANGE 1 DAYMATIC and has been endowed with a newly developed winding mechanism.

Its technical features include a unidirectional winding rotor in 21-carat gold with an additional centrifugal mass in platinum, a power reserve of 50 hours, and a cam-poised balance that runs with a frequency of 21,600 semi-oscillations per hour.

Many of Lange’s quality hallmarks can be admired through the sapphire-crystal caseback: the plates and bridges made of untreated German silver and decorated with Glashütte ribbing, five gold chatons secured with thermally blued steel screws, and the hand-engraved balance cock with the superposed whiplash spring used for beat adjustments.

As always, the parts of the movement, which is assembled twice, are manually finished to the strictest Lange standards.

Technical details

Model: A. Lange & Söhne LANGE 1 PERPETUAL CALENDAR

Versions
Reference 345.056: 18K white gold case and solid pink-gold dial (limited edition of 150 pieces)
Reference 345.033: 18K pink gold case and solid silver grey-colored dial

Movement
Calibre L021.3
Self-winding movement
Diameter: 35.8 mm
Height: 8.8 mm
Movement parts: 621
Rubies: 63
Number of screwed gold chatons: 5
Power reserve: 50 hours when fully wound
Frequency: 21600 semi-oscillations per hour
Beat-adjustment system: Screw balance

Case
White gold/Pink gold
Diameter: 41.9 mm
Height: 12.1 mm

Dial
Reference 345.056: Solid pink gold dial with rhodiumed gold hands
Reference 345.033: Solid silver grey-colored dial with pink gold hands

Strap
Brown alligator leather strap with buckle in pink or white gold

Suggested retail price
Reference 345.056: 109, 000 Euros
Reference 345.033: 98,000 Euros

• Find More Details about A. Lange & Söhne Watch Brand.

• A. LANGE & SÖHNE New Watch Models.

• A. LANGE & SÖHNE Archives (from 1994 to 2013).

Image Credit: Lange Uhren GmbH