Despite the awful news of the passing of the great Walter Lange earlier this year, A. Lange & Söhne have managed to release a stunning collection of watches that not only decorate the Swiss watch company as one of the leading watchmakers the world over, but also celebrate the life of Walter Lange and what he has accomplished at the company.
Just one watch to mention is the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Decimal Strike. The watch is said to make time audible in a new way – its striking mechanism sounds every ten minutes.
Originally introduced in 2009, the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk gave time a new face with a mechanical jumping numerals display. Now the new Zeitwerk Decimal Strike timepiece is enriching the success and unusual design of the watch family with a third model featuring an acoustic time indication.
Given its mechanical architecture, the Zeitwerk calibre offers ideal prerequisites for the integration of a striking mechanism: A large amount of energy is built up for advancing its mechanism, precisely jumping numerals display. As was already the case with the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater and the Zeitwerk Striking Time, this energy can be put to good use by an automatic striking mechanism. In this new model, it relies on two differently tuned gongs to indicate the full hours as well as the ten-minute intervals between the start of one hour and the next. The two hammers that are visible on the dial side consist of polished steel and, like the hammer bridge, are decorated with a tremblage engraving. The hammer on the left strikes the low-pitched gong once every full hour. The right-hand hammer sounds a higher-pitched tone every ten minutes, or in other words, every time a new ten-minute interval begins.
With its large, precisely jumping numerals display, the Zeitwerk Decimal Strike assures excellent legibility. The patented constant-force escapement between the mainspring barrel and the balance delivers the power. It ensures that the balance has a constant source of energy across the entire power reserve period. The high-pitched tone sounds every time the tens disc advances. It is also important to note that the striking mechanism can be switched off. When the button at 4 o’clock is pressed, the hammers are deflected away from the gongs. This also happens when the crown is pulled to set the time.
The incredible technical concept is paired with an innovative material. The case of the Zeitwerk Decimal Strike, limited to an edition of 100 watches, consists of honey gold as used exclusively by A. Lange & Söhne. The watch has a diameter of 44.2mm. The lavishly finished, manually wound calibre L043.7 has a maximum power reserve of 36 hours. Lange-typical quality hallmarks include the ¾ plate made of untreated German silver and decorated with Glashütte ribbing, the hand-engraved balance cock, and a cam-poised balance with a free-sprung hairspring crafted in-house at the company base.
Leave a Comment