With Minute Repeater Perpetual, A. Lange & Söhne has created a beautiful 950 platinum timepiece featuring an extremely complicated, hand-wound, 634-part movement combining the chiming minute repeater with a perpetual calendar – the 75th calibre made by the German manufacture since 1990 when the brand was reborn.
Elegantly presented with a glossy black enamel dial in four sections with white gold-edged subdials, the design goes hand in hand with horology of the highest class. “The combination of materials looks just gorgeous, said A. Lange & Söhne’s Director of Product Development Anthony de Haas.
Platinum is, however, a somewhat polemical material when it comes to minute repeaters thanks to its density. This could potentially narrow frequency response and lower the output volume. “We do not share the opinion that platinum is not the best material for repeaters,” said Mr de Haas. “The fact that we successfully launched several minute repeaters in platinum is proof of this. For example, the beautiful, pure and clean tonalities of the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater and the Richard Lange Minute Repeater in platinum are simply breath-taking,” Mr de Haas continued about the watch which has a low pitch for hours, double tone for quarters and a higher-pitched tone for minutes.
An article in Revolution magazine supports Mr. de Haas’s view on platinum-cased repeaters. “The sound is more austere, with a noticeably narrower range of frequencies, but on the other hand the narrower palette allows other factors to be heard more clearly. In some respects, it’s actually a cleaner auditory experience,” Suan Futt Yeo wrote in the article.
Safety and user-friendliness
Lange is famous for combining the most complicated aspects with user-friendliness, which is a welcome thing on extremely complicated timepieces. A great example on the Minute Repeater Perpetual is the safety device which prevents potential damage to the chiming mechanism, the culprit being the crown. Thanks to the device the crown cannot be pulled when the watch is chiming, nor can the chiming mechanism be activated when the crown is out.
The German company is equally famous for going the extra horological mile. An example is the pause elimination feature, which skips the pause between the hour and minute strike before the first quarter has elapsed. Also, they have included a hammer blocker, which locks the hammers in home position for a fraction of a second after the gongs have been struck. Why? Re-bounding hammers is a real problem in minute repeaters. Rebounds are normally not visible to the eye but have a negative effect on the notes emerging from the gongs. Here: Problem solved. As always, this movement with a 72-hour power reserve also proudly boasts German tell-tales, like the hand-engraved balance cock, the three-quarter plate made of untreated German silver, and gold chatons housing the four most prominent rubies.
It is difficult to compare apples with pears, but the watch – limited to 50 pieces – is one of the most complicated to emerge from the manufacture, which is located in German Glashütte. “The Minute Repeater Perpetual is our first watch of its kind with a pure focus on minute repeater and perpetual calendar. Only our Grand Complication combined these two complications, among others. That makes our novelty one of the most complicated models in our collection,” concluded Mr de Haas.
