By Harlan Chapman-Green
Colours play a crucial role in wristwatches. Match the right colour dial to the right colour strap and you have yourself a winner, or something never seen before. This new 39mm Saxonia Thin from A.Lange & Söhne is both; I’d never have expected them to do something this unique and attractive.
The new look
Lange watches have, for quite a while now, been blending aesthetics more and more with technical prowess. Think of the ceramic dial Lange 1 Tourbillon or any of the other Handwerkskunst watches. Watches from A.Lange & Söhne are now offering Germanic styled watches with Swiss ideas (maybe because Richemont owns them?). This means that they are, once again, playing the Swiss watchmakers at their own game, and doing a damned fine job of it. The Copper Blue dial Saxonia Thin watch isn’t a Handwerksunst piece by the way, although it has been given that style of treatment. It is a novelty, though, so availability may be limited.
I remember an interview we did with Lange’s Director of Product Development, Anthony de Haas when we toured the factory. He told us that Lange makes ‘quite thin watches’, not very thin or super thin, but, only quite. He said: “We have a Saxonia Thin but that is 5.9mm high and the guys at Piaget will laugh themselves to death”. As it sits, the Saxonia Copper Blue dial is 6.2mm in thickness, I’m not entirely sure why this is, but there you are.
17th-century methods meet 21st-century watchmaking
You’re probably wondering at this point where the ‘Copper Blue’ naming is coming in. Of course, it’s from the dial, but the dial has had a unique process done to it to make it so. The effect came to be in the 17th century, in Venice, to be precise. The dial is made of solid silver and is covered in goldstone. Also in this blue coating are microscopic flecks of copper, which are what give it that blue sparkle under the light.
Inside the watch is the in-house made calibre L093.1 movement, a manually wound piece with the signature three-quarter plate and balance off to one side. The price is set at $22,000, but that could change in the USA because of exchange rate differences. alange-soehne.com
