A. Lange & Söhne released a special edition of the Lange 1 Time Zone in honey gold to celebrate the 22-year anniversary of the first Lange collection of the company’s modern era.
The watch was released October 24, on the same date in 1994 when the German watchmaker held a press conference in the Dresden Residential Palace to unveil its first watches since the re-forming of the company.
A. Lange & Söhne’s founder, Ferdinand Adolph Lange, is credited with helping to create a watchmaking industry in the German city of Glashütte near Dresden in 1845. The company’s watchmaking facility was bombed during World War II and the post-war Soviet administration expropriated the company’s property. That’s when the Lange brand ceased to exist.
Following the collapse of the East German government, Walter Lange, the great-grandson of the company’s founder, and his partner Günter Blümlein re-formed the company in 1990 and presented its first timepieces four years later.
The clearly organized dial of the Lange 1 Time Zone provides a reading of the home time and the time in a second time zone. The time zone is set with a lateral pusher. It advances the rotating city ring with the 24 place names from west to east. On the ring, Dresden—instead of Berlin as in the standard version—represents Central European Time. In addition, the hour hand on the small subsidiary dial moves forward by one step with each use of the pusher. A synchronization mechanism makes it possible to transfer the zone time on the subsidiary dial to the main dial.
Subtle color changes in the design of the city ring differentiate it from the standard version. The dots between the city names and GMT are blue instead of red. The previously black peripheral ring of the second time zone has the same blue hue as well.
The 41.9mm case is made of 18k honey gold, A. Lange & Söhn’s proprietary gold alloy. The watch is powered by the hand-finished in-house caliber L031.1 with a three-day power reserve.
Limited to 100 pieces, it is available exclusively in the 17 A. Lange & Söhne boutiques worldwide.
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