Lot 833, A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Time Zone. A fine, attractive and rare limited edition white gold dual time wristwatch with warranty and presentation box, numbered 3 of a limited edition of 100 pieces. Estimate HK$156,000 - 240,000
The A. Lange & Söhne story is well-known now, as one of Germany’s most prestigious brands. Its origins lie in Glashütte, a small town in the region of Saxony, not far from Dresden, a city that has been compared to Florence, Italy, for it was a similar hub of science and arts, with a beautiful architecture that drew many visitors. The war years brought considerable strife to the region though, as it was nearly destroyed in the waning years of World War II, and it would become part of the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, closed off to much of the Western influences for a half century. The watchmakers and the brands that had been established in Glashütte would be absorbed into a nationalized conglomerate that produced rather plain, functional watches, until the fall of the Berlin Wall. This opened the door for the return to Glashütte of Walter Lange, a direct descendant of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, who, with industrialist visionary Günter Blümlein, set about re-establishing the Lange name in Glashütte and showing the world that it was capable of rivalling the finest Swiss brands. History shows us that this is certainly mission accomplished, with today’s A. Lange & Söhne firmly ensconced in the haute horlogerie firmament.
The Lange 1 Time Zone was introduced in 2005, in a well-coordinated global launch that we would take almost for granted today, but was a technological and logistical feat at the time, echoing the horological content of the timepiece itself, with a simultaneous presentation through video links and local events across dozens of cities around the world. It takes considerable skill to make such a watch which displays a considerable amount of information on its dial, and yet keep it simple to use and easily legible. Even with the dual time displays, day / night indicators, and signature oversized date display, the Lange 1 Time Zone maintains the golden proportions which make the Lange 1 such an aesthetically balanced watch. This particular design, as shown in this special and highly limited Buenos Aires edition, stayed virtually unchanged for 15 years. Its successor was presented just last year, with some aesthetic and technical changes, but we maintain a preference for this original dial layout, which we find more readily legible with the smaller separate day / night indicators. Of course, the maison’s legendary finishing, which cuts no corners by being applied to every single component, even those that only the watchmaker who assembled the watch would ever see, is present, and it continues to ensure that Lange watches remain quite rare, especially when compared with its Swiss counterparts.