Something special from Glashütte’s first watchmaking company is the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar watch, unveiled at SIHH 2012.

Tourbillons are tricky little things.  Their creation requires the skills of a Master Watchmaker.  Their number of components can be counted in the hundreds.  Their construction can be measured in hours spent at the bench.  A tourbillon is a highly prized addition to any fine wristwatch and will animate any watch dial – normally appearing in its own aperture, many tourbillons even go for dial domination, the main feature  – and one which you will be proud to show off.  Not so this watch, so determined to protect the instantly recognisable Glashütte dial arrangement, A. Lange & Söhne have relegated the tourbillon of this piece to the back – in order to admire it you will need to remove it from your wrist and turn it over.

A. Lange & Söhne produce some of the best high-end handcrafted timepieces available  with meticulous attention to detail and manufacture calibres housed in cases made from precious metals,  these are wristwatches for connoisseurs.  How very “Lange” of them to unveil a new piece with not only a tourbillon which is discreet, but also a perpetual calendar, cleverly integrated and using a rotating peripheral month ring which is so subtle it is almost imperceptible.

For this piece, the brand’s tenth Masterpiece, Lange have re-worked the indications but each retain their individual portion of the dial as before.  On the right are the hours and minutes, opposite is a day of the week retrograde display, below this is a combined moonphase indicator and small seconds subdial and the outsize double date aperture, synonymous with the brand is at 10 o’clock.  The rotating month ring is a world first, on its underside is an ingenious mechanism featuring recesses for each month’s variations.  No adjustment will be required until March 1st 2100 which as a “quirk” of the Gregorian calendar will be a secular year. Furthermore, all the displays change instantaneously.

Displaced it may be, but the one-minute tourbillon, viewable through the sapphire caseback has not been neglected.  Housed in a filigreed cage, it features a patented stop-seconds mechanism ensuring precise time re-setting to one-second accuracy.  The Manufacture L082. self-winding calibre has a substantial 21 carat gold engraved rotor which makes optimum use of each wrist motion to quickly restore power reserve to the maximum 50 hours.  As you would expect from an in-house Lange movement, decoration is to the highest standard.

A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar is presented in a 41.9mm “Grande” case, constructed from 18 carat pink gold, also available is a 100 piece platinum case limited edition.

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The latest addition to the H. Moser & Cie collection is highly unusual and technically unique in its construction.  The moonphase complication of this piece marks the passing of each phase through the use of a gear train so precise that the display will only deviate by one day in over 1000 years.

H. Moser Perpetual Moon

The moonphase itself is both visually stunning and highly unusual, the window located at 6 0′clock also displays the eight moon quarters represented as vertical lines and also a division into days which is applied directly onto the dial.  When one of the vertical lines (denoting the astronomical quarters of the moonphase) is aligned between the two triangles of the dial aperture, precise readabilityof a defined phase is therefore ensured.  Adjustment of the moonphase, if required is possible – a pin-type pushbutton is located at 9 o’clock and the use of an innovative wrap spring clutch mechanism allows for correction of the moonphase without changing the time display.

H. Moser & Cie. Perpetual Moon

H. Moser & Cie was founded in 1825 but the original brand name was revived and re-registered once more as a watchmaking company in 2002.  Watch movements manufactured by this acclaimed brand are unique in their finish and construction – the pallet levers and escape wheels are constructed from solid gold – the only watch company to do so- and are fitted with a removable escapement providing a simple and safe solution to repairs.  Distinctive finishing on the plate and bridges in the form of broad and narrow double lines or “Moser ground stripes” and the use of gold chatons into which the jewels are set place this brand apart in terms of attention to detail.

The Moser Perpetual Moon is a striking piece – the moonphase is complimented by a rich dark blue fumé dial and features elongated appliquéd markers.  It is powered by the Moser Calibre HMC348.901 hand-wound movement and is available in two variations, 18 carat rose gold or platinium.

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