Chronos24 Watch of the Year Awards A. Lange & Söhne

Polish watch website Chronos24.pl organized a Watch of the Year election, for the fifth time already, and this year they asked me to be part of the jury. Together with Beth Doerr (Quill & Pad), Miguel Seabra (Espiral do Tempo and tennis commentator on Eurosport), Kristian Haagen (0024 Watchworld), Amr Sindi (The Horophile) and five Polish journalists we sat down and after some fierce discussion we agreed upon the winners in the various categories and the overall Grand Prix winner, being the A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar Terraluna. 

A. Lange & Söhne actually won three prizes: the Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar Terraluna was awarded with the overall Grand Prix award and as best complicated watch of the year. Furthermore, founder of the brand, mr. Walter Lange, won the special prize of the jury. Founder and editor Tomasz Kiełtyka, and editor-in-chief Łukasz Doskocz of chronos24.pl handed over the three awards.

From the jury report: Special Jury Prize for Walter Lange and A. Lange & Söhne for 20 years of amazing brand’s development, re-birth of high-end German watchmaking and creating one of world’s best manufactures. In mare 20 years since the launch of the first collection in Dresden Mr. Walter Lange and his team achieved what most brands work for at least couple times that long. Lange & Söhne is one of the most respected and qualified yet traditional and respectful watchmakers in the world, with a very clear and consistent image. 

And of course there were more award winners! The prize for “watches under 10,000 Polish Zloty” went to the Tudor Black Bay with Midnight Blue bezel. The one we featured yesterday in our Weekly Watch Photo. The “public prize” went to the Longines Heritage 1935, one that we also covered together with its vintage ancestor. The “prize for classic watch of the year” went to the world’s thinnest minute repeater watch, Vacheron Constantin’s stunning Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra-Thin Calibre 1731 (check the article if you want to know more about how a minute repeater actually works).

The sports watch prize was for the Richard Mille RM 35-01 that is made of the same NTPT Carbon as the RM 011 NTPT Lotus F1 for Romain Grosjean. The prize for best ladies watch went to the Christophe Claret Margot, which also won the same prize at the GPHG last week. Last but not least, the prize for innovation in watchmaking went to… Swatch for their Sistem51. Of course we did a thorough review of that groundbreaking timepiece that is held together by just ONE SCREW.

Thanks to the Chronos24 team for letting me be part of the jury!