A. Lange & Söhne are always producing spectacular watches and producing those watches in very limited quantities. The new Grand Complication is a truly amazing piece of horology and only six of them will be made. Here is a first look at this new stunning piece from A. Lange & Söhne.
Different manufactures have different standards for what they will and will not call a grand complication, but this watch features a grande and petite sonnerie, minute repeater, split-seconds monopusher chronograph (with flyback seconds and a minutes register), and a perpetual calendar with moonphase indicator. Is it too complicated to understand?
With every complication here, A. Lange & Söhne has pushed it to the limits. Instead of just a minute repeater, there is a grande and petite sonnerie; instead of a chronograph, or even a split-seconds chronograph, there is a monopusher split-seconds chronograph accurate to 1/5th of a second; the perpetual calendar is accurate until year 2100 without adjustment and advances all the indicators (except the moonphase) at midnight. Another great timepiece from A.Lange & Söhne, this piece is 50 mm of pure perfection!
Video:
Anthonie de Haas about the 1815 RATTRAPANTE PERPETUAL CALENDAR
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
Ref. 912.032
Mouvement
– Lange manufacture calibre L1902, manually wound, crafted to the most exacting Lange quality standards, decorated and assembled by hand; precision-adjusted in five positions; plates and bridges made of untreated German silver; balance cock engraved by hand; chronograph levers black-polished
– Jewels: 67
– Screwed gold chatons: 7
– Escapement: Glashütte lever escapement, lever and escape wheel in 18- carat gold
– Oscillator: Shock-resistant screw balance, superior-quality balance spring manufactured in-house, frequency 18,000 semi- oscillations per hour, precision index tail adjustment system with lateral setscrew and whiplash spring
– Power reserve when fully wound: Going train: 30 hours; grand strike: 30 hours; small strike: 42 hours
Functions
– Time display with hours and minutes
– Chiming mechanism with grand and small strike
– Minute repeater
– Split-seconds chronograph with minute counter and jumping seconds
– Perpetual calendar with date, day of week, month in four-year cycle
– Moon phase
Operating elements
– Crown for winding the watch and setting the time
– One pusher each for operating the chronograph and the rattrapante mechanism
– Lever for activating and deactivating the chiming mechanism
– Lever for selecting small and grand strike
– Slide for actuating the minute repeater
– Correction push pieces for advancing the date, day of week, month, and moon phase
Case dimensions
– Diameter: 50.0 millimetres
– height: 20.3 millimetres
Movement dimensions
– Diameter: 40.5 millimetres
– Height: 14.2 millimetres
Case
– Pink gold
– Crystal and caseback: Sapphire crystal (hardness 9)
Dial
– Five-part enamel dial
Hands
– Pink gold; minute counter, rattrapante hand and jumping se- conds hand blued steel
Strap
– Hand-stitched crocodile strap, red-brown
Buckle
– Lange deployant buckle in pink gold
