The A. Lange & Söhne Tourbillons
For the very first time, the 1815 TOURBILLON presented early this year combines two patented mechanisms that simplify the precise settability of the watch: the stop-seconds device for the tourbillon and the ZERO-RESET function. Lange’s eighth manufacture calibre within a 20-year period to include a tourbillon will be available within a matter of days. Reason enough to cast a look back.
Gravity is probably the most elusive of all physical phenomena and has piqued the curiosity of the human mind since time immemorial. In H. G. Wells’ book “The First Men in the Moon”, which was published in 1901, an eccentric scientist named Cavor develops a mysterious material that cancels out gravitational forces. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, gravitation can be neither neutralised nor deflected in the real world. One hundred years before Wells wrote his novel, watchmakers at least discovered a way to outfox gravity – with the invention of the tourbillon, the French word for “whirlwind”. It is a filigreed steel cage that contains the oscillator of the watch and rotates about its axis once a minute. Thanks to its constant motion, this fascinating mechanism offsets the influence of gravity on the rate accuracy of the timepiece.
Eight tourbillons in 20 years
No fewer than eight of the 49 manufacture calibres that A. Lange & Söhne has launched in the past 20 years are endowed with this remarkable device. But for the product developers at Lange, the issue was never simply to have watches with tourbillons in the portfolio. In the design phases, they always attempted to optimise the elaborate ensemble of parts wherever possible. This quest resulted in scores of new ideas – and a suite of world debuts.
Lange’s merits in precision
The first debut was presented with the TOURBILLON “Pour le Mérite”, one of the models of the inaugural collection that premiered in 1994. With an intelligent application of the principle of levers, the fusée-and-chain transmission – implemented in a wristwatch for the first time – compensated the gradually declining power delivered by the mainspring barrel. This further improved the rate stability and precision of the watch. Incidentally, the edition was limited to 200 watches and ranks among the brand’s greatest successes at auction. Today, well-preserved exemplars of the coveted collectors’ item will fetch four to five times the original selling price. Later, the fusée-and-chain transmission was used in two further tourbillon models. In the TOURBOGRAPH “Pour le Mérite”, it was joined by a rattrapante chronograph. The RICHARD LANGE TOURBILLON “Pour le Mérite” introduced in 2011 features a fascinating regulator dial layout with an ingenious pivoting dial segment.
A new chapter in the history of the tourbillon
In 2008, Lange celebrated a double debut with the CABARET TOURBILLON. It wasn’t only the brand’s first and so far only rectangular tourbillon watch but also the first one endowed with the patented stop-seconds mechanism. More than 200 years after the invention of the tourbillon, this Lange development was the long awaited solution to the problem of immobilising the oscillating balance inside the rotating cage. Since then, all new tourbillon calibres crafted by the manufactory have been endowed with the stop-seconds mechanism.
Design icon with whirlwind
Lange’s most famous timepiece provided a perfect stage for the tourbillon – three times. The LANGE 1 TOURBILLON, referred to as the “Centennial Tourbillon” had its debut in 2000. Ten years later, the evolved LANGE 1 TOURBILLON “165 Years – Homage to F. A. Lange” – with the stop-seconds mechanism – was presented in a limited edition in honey-coloured gold, an innovative gold alloy of previously unprecedented hardness. At first sight, only a discreet inscription on the dial reveals that the self-winding LANGE 1 TOURBILLON PERPETUAL CALENDAR is endowed with a tourbillon. But a glance through the sapphire-crystal caseback is all it takes to admire this immaculately finished mechanism.
