New Lange & Söhne – Zeitwerk

A Lange & Söhne just released a new watch, the Lange Zeitwerk. Time is displayed not with hands, but with digits. Although this is not something completely new, A Lange & Söhne made a pretty new watch with impressive complications.

A Lange & Söhne’s new Zeitwerk, or translated Timework, features jumping hours and minutes, a small seconds hand with stop seconds and a power-reserve indicator. Besides the rare features visible from the dial side, they also incorporated a remontoire or constant-force escapement.

The Zeitwerk comes in 3 colors of gold and in platinum. Measuring 41,9mm in diamter and 12,6mm thick, this is one of the larger watches made by Lange. The hours are displayed in the window at the left side of the dial and the minutes at the right side of the dial. On top a power reserve indicator tells you how much of the 36 hours of power reserve are left, before you have to wind the movement again. At the bottom of the dial is a small second hand, which stops when setting the time. I like the crown placed at the ‘2’ position, although with this dial there’s no ‘2’ position 🙂

To simultaneously advance all three numeral discs once every hour, requires a significant amount of energy. The power is delivered by a newly developed barrel with an extra-strong mainspring. Usually the power released by the mainspring is strong when the mainspring is fully wound and slowly gets less when the mainspring unwinds. Especially because the mainspring used is extra strong, Lange & Söhne used a remontoire or constant-force escapement to release the power with constant force.

The movement exists of 388 parts and 66 jewels and has a threequarter plate. Somehow i think the movement looks kind of frivolous, especially for the conservative style Lange & Söhne usually shows.

I already mentioned displaying time with digital numbers isn’t new. Cartier was the first to make a wristwatch featuring a jump hour in 1929, the Cartier Tank a Guichets. But also brand like Gerald Genta, Daniel Roth and Chronoswiss have watches with jumping hours. This feature was already available on pocketswatches, like on these IWC pocketwatches.

The photo of the Zeitwerk calibre L043.1 is from the Lange & Söhne forum @ Horomundi