A radiant presence…

First introduced in 2003 by German Manufacture A. Lange & Sohne, the 41.9mm “Grand Lange 1″ is the big brother of the 38.5mm Lange 1.  The Lange 1 itself is perhaps the emblematic watch of the house of A. Lange, highly acclaimed and awarded.  As you can tell by the name of the watch, the Grand Lange 1 now for the first time has luminous hands and time markers.

A. Lange Grand Lange 1 Luminous

white gold case, Caliber L901.2 hand-wound movement with 72+ hour power reserve, hand-stitched black crocodile strap with matching buckle

Editor’s Note:  This guest post was written by Geert Tibosch, co-owner of the leading Dutch watch platform, DeZinVanLuxe (DZVL), which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary.

The dream of every watch collector: a unique piece, something really special.  Earlier than expected, I was going to have the chance to own such a piece; a Lange & Söhne pocket watch, a chronograph from the early 1900’s.

Whether I’d wear such a thing is another question, but owning such a masterpiece would be fantastic. To cut a long story short, at a small auction house in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, they had a pocket watch up for auction. Not just a pocket watch, but the Lange mentioned above.  Below you can see the picture of the watch from the catalogue, and below this a picture of the movement, directly from the Lange & Söhne website.

The auction house estimate was set between €350 and €500. This could be a great opportunity to make a dream come true. The week before the auction I collected all possible information about the watch, unfortunately there wasn’t a single comparable watch on the internet.

So we had to make a decision, how much would it be worth to us? Before the auction we looked at the pocket watch once again. Obviously it was special, but how special?

Lot number 6218 was brought into the auction room, we agreed on the maximum amount we were going to bid. The only thing that could help us now was a lack of interest from other bidders. The auction started at €400, to €425, €450… The auctioneer didn’t see my raised hand until another bidder stopped bidding at €700. Now the bidding really began, two candidates with only one goal: bringing in an unprecedented fine Lange & Söhne pocket watch.

Bidding went up quickly to 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 2,500, 3,000… Phew, we weren’t expecting that. All the literature on auctions says one thing to get the optimum result: decide your maximum bid in advance and do not get distracted by peripheral issues or emotion. No sooner said than done: when bidding reached €3,200 we stopped, however special the pocketwatch seemed to be.

After the lot was sold, the auction was over for us. The winning bidder also left the room and waited for us outside. The only thing we could do, was to congratulate him with this fantastic purchase. We couldn’t resist asking him about his knowledge of the watch.

Dumbfounded he told us this was a really unique piece from Lange & Söhne and he ascribed a value of no less than €25,000 to the pocket watch. We knew it was special, but not that special…

An illusion poorer but an experience richer, the auction ended. We didn’t feel disappointment or regret, only respect for the buyer. With his knowledge and experience he had the key to success!

What an experience!

How About a Lume Shot for the Zeitwerk Luminous?!?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is sooo much to like from A. Lange this year.  So why not feature another one here on the blog.  A. Lange introduced the Zeitwerk last year to great  acclaim.  They have added a spectacular innovaton to the Zeitwerk this year – that is, use of a dark-tinted sapphire-crystal glass that allows just enough visibility so that you can see the numerals that would otherwise be hidden on the inner workings of the watch.  But the kicker is that the numerals are coated with white Superluminova, meaning that in the dark, the glowing numerals will appear to float incandescently on the dial of the watch.  Cooooool…….

Now, if you want to see all the rest of the A. Lange goodies this year you can click here, or any of the other watches from the 19 brands at this year’s SIHH, just click on over to our Official SIHH 2010 Forum page and feast your eye for as long as you like!

Sooo much to like from A. Lange this year.  Here’s one for starters – the Saxonia Annual Calendar. This is very much a Lange in its design, with a modest case size (38.5mm case) in white gold (pictured) or pink gold.  The movement is an automatic with 46 hour power reserve.  You can read all the specs here, along with several other new models from A. Lange.

These two press pictures from Lange look amazing and I thought worth sharing here:

A. Lange & Söhne to Live Blog from SIHH 2010 – And Officially Launch It’s Twitter Feed – Bravo!

Well, well well what another fantastic surprise I get in my inbox today.  Looks like all of you watch owners, collectors & enthusiasts will be getting unprecedented access at SIHH 2010 from not only Jaeger-leCoultre (see here to sign up for their live videocast and Q&A session), but now A. Lange & Sohne as well who is going to be “live blogging” the entire event.  Also in what I find to be slightly humorous, A. Lange indicated that it will be officially launching the brand’s Twitter account (http://twitter.com/alangesoehne is it?) – I chuckle only because this seems like a lot of fanfare just for starting on Twitter

So how to tune in to this?  You are just a click away! 

www.alange-soehne.com/sihh.

It’s going to be a fun Monday!

Introducing the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Daymatic.  The first automatic in A. Lange & Söhne’s prestigious Lange 1 collection.  Yellow gold, pink gold or platinum case housing the new Lange Caliber L021.1 with 50mm power reserve and platinum-weighted rotor.  Day and date functions on the dial.  Case diameter 39.5mm – +1mm greater than the traditional Lange 1.  Not sure of the price, but think well into the 5-figures.  I am recommending an excellent overview and perspective of this great new watch over at Monochrome – check it out.

I think that it is smart of A. Lange not to release a picture of the BACK of the watch (from which we could see that new movement through the sapphire crystal caseback) – this will keep many of us – particularly the hard core Lange enthusiasts – in EAGER anticipation of the watches actual unveiling at SIHH 2010 in Geneva.  Nice – gotta build that buzz!!! �

I’ll wrap this up with a nice image of the watch below, but if you want to read the official press release – and more importantly see several BIG and JUICY HIGH RES PHOTOS, check it out HERE, in the Perpetuelle.com News section.

Strategic Differences of Opinion Over the Brands Future Direction Cited

As first reported at Horomundi early this morning US time, Fabrian Krone, the CEO of reknowned German watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne has resigned.  The announcement comes on the heels of the Richemont-owned watchmaking house recently being name “Germany’s Top Luxury Brand” beating out other fabled brands such as Maybach and Porsche.

Here is the brief statement released by A. Lange today from its Glashütte HQ:

As a result of strategic differences of opinion over the future direction of A. Lange & Söhne, Mr Fabian Krone has intimated his decision to stand down as Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Richemont regrets but respects Mr Krone’s decision.

Mr Jerzy Schaper, who up until now has been Chief Operating Officer of A. Lange & Söhne will take over with immediate effect as interim Chief Executive Officer.

A. Lange & Söhne was acquired by Richemont in 2000. It has a strong management team and a highly motivated workforce and will continue to play a significant role as one of Richemont’s leading specialist watchmaker businesses in the future.

First In Watches will keep you posted as the story develops.

Watch Picks, Pans, and Other Interesting Articles

From around the watch world this week:

• Kronos Blog – A. Lange & Sohne “ZEITWERK” (good opinion piece)
• Omega Consellation Collectors – Omega’s Gerald Genta Connection with further link to Omega’s Genta Connection – The Definitive Story
• Hodinkee – Meet Armin Strom, The Boutique Brand of the Future
• ABlogToRead – ETA Valgranges Movement – Solution for the big watch

And last but not least, probably the most widely covered watch this week was Urwerk’s new CC-1 King Cobra watch (pictured below).  Perpetuelle was one of the first to reveal this watch (see our July 7 post), and there was some nice coverage also provided in the days following its official July 8 launch by Gizmodo, Uncrate, OhGizmo! and Vialuxe, to name a few.  Most of the coverage was favorable, but not everyone is a fan of this unconventional timepiece…

• Tapestry of Time - oh dear…that won’t do…

Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what your favorite watch articles were this week.

Prestigious Saxon watchmaking house A. Lange & Söhne has released a fantastic new watch – the Lange Zeitwerk.  According to A. Lange “Often, it is a new face that ushers in new times,” while it further quotes French painter Paul Gauguin “I shut my eyes in order to see” as the maxim that was adopted by Lange’s calibre engineers and designers as they resolved to explore uncharted territory and, from an unbiased viewpoint, devise a watch that would be evolutionary and progressive in every respect.