The Marco Lang Seven Spheres, with Seven-Axis Central Tourbillon

The name Marco Lang should be familiar to the most seasoned of our readers, for an obvious reason. The man is one of the most revered German watchmakers and one of the founders of the brand Lang & Heyne, with Mirko Heyne. Having left the manufacture in 2019, Marco Lang created his own brand back in 2020, launching the inaugural Zweigesicht, a two-face watch with either an ultra-classic, Saxon-inspired side and another one far more technical. With the idea to simply be “back to the workbench”, to make watches that bear his name, Marco Lang now presents his second eponymous creation, the Seven Spheres. And it features one of the most complex multi-axis tourbillon regulators on the market, spinning on no fewer than seven axes. 

With this watch, Marco Lang enters the small circle of highly specialised watchmakers regulating their watches with multi-axis tourbillons. It can be two axes, it can be three or even four axes, it can be super-fast… But these technical features remain rare (and expensive) solutions that are equally seen as a kinetic structure as pure chronometry. With his aptly named Seven Spheres, Marco Lang leaves his mark on the niche market of multi-axis tourbillon watches with one of the most complex proportions, as the regulating organ is “surrounded by seven intricately interconnected rings that, via seven planetary gears, channel the energy of the four mainspring barrels from the outside to the inside.”

Inspirations

There are two main inspirations behind the creation of this watch. The first, despite being now obsolete, is the geocentric world view established by Ptolemy in the 1st-2nd century, where the Earth was thought to be stationary at the centre of its visible universe. In this theory, seven planetary spheres orbited the Earth (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), and above these were the sphere of fixed stars, the sphere of motion, and the Empyrean, the “seat of God.” Much later, in the heliocentric solar system defined by Nicolaus Copernicus in the mid-16th century, the Sun was placed at the centre, surrounded by seven spheres (Mercury, Venus, Earth (with moon), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, fixed stars.

The second is a 1997 movie named Contact, based on the novel by Carl Sagan, a movie that had a huge impact on young Marco Lang, in particular, the machine used by Jodie Foster as a way to connect with an alien civilisation. Lang said to have found inspiration in the three rotating rings used on this machine, later translated to a seven-axis cage for a regulating organ.

The Marco Lang Seven Spheres

Let’s first go quickly over the exterior and case of this new kinetic creation. Made from 950 platinum, the Marco Lang Seven Spheres is built around a fairly classic case design, both in line with Lang’s inaugural watch and reminiscent of his time at Lang & Heyne. Measuring 42mm in diameter, the case features a discreet crown guard module and sloping lugs with screw heads. Ornamental hand-engraving is available as an option. A domed, polished bezel frames an ultra-high sapphire crystal, which brings the 10mm case to a total thickness of 18mm – not unlike a Vianney Halter Deep Space or an MB&F Thunderdome. A sapphire crystal sits on the back, and the watch is rated for a 50m water-resistance.

What must be explained in more detail, however, is the movement and its central regulating organ. Just like watches such as the Vianney Halter Deep Space or the Arceau Duc Attelé by Hermès, the multi-axis regulator takes centre stage and is, without a doubt, the main attraction in this watch – even though the back also has stories to tell. The Calibre ml-02/7sp, a creation of Mister Lang, is spectacular in many ways and is quite a step up in terms of construction, creativity and complexity, compared to the man’s previous watches.

At the centre of this movement is a complex module, with a 3Hz-beating, four-legged balance wheel with eccentric regulation and driven by an anchor escapement, itself inserted in no fewer than seven titanium rings. As such, it adds even more complexity to what are already complex modules, multi-axis tourbillons being known to be hard to assemble and adjust. Until now, we’ve witnessed bi-axis, triple-axis or even four-axis tourbillons, but seven is unheard of. In principle, the more axes, the better the chronometric results, since each position cancels the effect of gravity. That said, Marco Lang emphasises the fact that chronometry wasn’t the main objective of the Seven Spheres but pure idealism.

This complex, relatively slow-rotating module (the outermost ring rotates once per hour, the innermost once every 50 seconds) is placed right in the centre of the movement and feels like floating in mid-air. The free-sprung balance is inserted in 7 nested spherical rings made of titanium, each offset by 30 degrees, with 6 planetary gears (curved wheels and pinions) with ratios 1:2 and one with a ratio of 1:2.25. An animation of the seven-axis regulating organ is available here. Having this module in the centre, the display had to be redefined, and Marco Lang here relies on a fairly complex and fully exposed ring setup, with two “floating” arrow-shaped hands in heat-blued steel. The hands appear to travel above the movement, since these are held in place under the arrowhead and hover above the tourbillon cages. Time is read on an engine-turned peripheral ring integrated within the movement.

Turning the watch over, you’ll discover an equally impressive view. The back of the movement reveals its torus-like shape, with all elements positioned on the periphery of the central regulator. The latter being oversized, it doesn’t leave much space for important elements such as power storage, hence the construction with four barrels in parallel. No fewer than nine gears are visible, in order to connect the crown to the four barrels, and the latter are linked to two swan-neck winding clicks with decorative diamond settings. The movement can store 55 hours of power reserve.

Decoration is intricate and highly demonstrative, starting with plates that are finely grained, gilded and hand-engraved, and moving parts and bridges made from steel with a mix of brushed surfaces and hand-polished bevels. Blued screws complete this maximalist movement.

Availability & Price

Worn on a blue alligator leather strap with shark leather on the inside to increase water resistance, the Marco Lang Seven Spheres is a limited edition of 18 pieces. As Marco Lang told us, “since I continue to perform the majority of the work by my own hands, this unfortunately results in longer delivery times.” As you can expect, such complexity and mechanical artistry come at a price, and the Seven Spheres requires EUR 250,000 before taxes.

For more details, please visit www.marcolangwatches.com.