SELECTION 2011 - Lange Zeitwerk Striking Time by A. Lange & Söhne

An offshoot of the Lange Zeitwerk family, this resoundingly unique timepiece also represents the first repeating movement manufactured by the company that kick-started watchmaking in Saxony 166 years ago.

5 December 2011

Elizabeth Doerr


This particular wristwatch was a long awaited one for dedicated fans of the Saxon brand. Until the introduction of this watch, A. Lange & Söhne had never fully made its own repeating timepiece. In the pre-war incarnation of the company, pocket watches outfitted with repeating movements were based on Swiss ébauches, sourced either from Audemars Piguet or Jaeger-LeCoultre. The modern version of this company, which was founded after Germany’s reunification in 1991, had not yet produced a wristwatch containing a repeating movement. Anthonie de Haas becoming Lange’s technical director in 2004 practically ensured that a repeater was on the way since this particular complication was his specialty with his former employer, movement creator Audemars Piguet Renaud et Papi.

A. Lange & Söhne’s Zeitwerk Striking Time is the first repeating timepiece fully made by the Saxon manufacture © A. Lange & Söhne

De Haas explained during the SIHH 2011 that the Lange Zeitwerk introduced in May 2009 yielded the perfect platform for the repeating mechanism. The disks providing the unusual timepiece’s digital time display needed more energy than a conventional one, so a movement with an extra-strength mainspring and a type of constant force device was conceived by Lange’s clever engineers. Manually wound Caliber L043.1/2, by the way, also had enough energy left over for further complications – providing an excellent opportunity to use the experience gained in the restoration of grande complication pocket watch no. 42500 to add a chiming function to it.

The Lange Zeitwerk’s one-piece, in-house gongs and hammers, which can be precisely timed thanks to the harmonious digital display, are visible right on its interesting dial. A button located at 4 o’clock on the case can turn the sound off if desired: when pressed, the hammers are lifted out of their miniscule dial recesses and away from the gongs, locking them into place until the button is pressed again. The gongs are secured to the case band for added resonance, with the quarter hour strike easily discernible from the “bong” at the top of the hour thanks to its higher pitch.

The Lange Zeitwerk Striking Time is available in an unlimited 44.2 mm white gold case with black dial and in a platinum case of the same size with a rhodium-plated dial that is strictly limited to 100 pieces.