Watches And Wonders 2025: A. Lange & Söhne Offers A Rare Complication Composite With The Minute Repeater Perpetual
4 min read
Quality and complication in defiance with belief is a rare occurrence within the watchmaking industry. Yes, that’s even in a pool of many impressive geniuses that occupy these frontiers. From establishing the benchmarks of finesse and exhibiting a rare assortment of complications all executed in-house, A. Lange & Söhne is in many ways the purveyor of uber-fine when it comes to exacting standards of high watchmaking. Well, what they have offered at Watches and Wonders 2025 is a continuation of their tradition of marrying the most sophisticated complications in a horological union that is clinically perfect.
Welcome the A. Lange & Söhne Minute Repeater Perpetual.
A Rare Convergence Of Complications
There are many complicated watches at A. Lange & Söhne. This unofficial fourth leg of the horological holy trinity has a portfolio imbued with classic Saxon haute horologe hallmarks and the unexpected avant-garde of the Zeitwerk. Yet their most complicated timepiece remains the Grand Complication, a 2013 release. At Watches and Wonders 2025, A. Lange & Söhne reinforces its complication mastery by offering the Minute Repeater Perpetual, a timepiece based on a newly developed caliber with the rare and ambitious amalgam of a minute repeater with a perpetual calendar. Just the name, which is a mention of its functional particulars, is a hint at its crisp and clinical perfectionism. To call it anything else would be a disservice to its rare constituents.
A Distinct Chiming Mechanism
The A. Lange & Söhne Minute Repeater Perpetual offers a repertoire of 720 unique sequences spanning the twelve-hour cycle. Relying on a complex architecture of 194 precisely choreographed components, the striking mechanism includes intricate systems such as a pause elimination feature. It skips the pause between the hour and minute strike when no double tone must be struck for the quarter hours in the first 14 minutes after the top of the hour. A robust safety mechanism prevents engagement of the repeater while the crown is pulled, and conversely, the crown is locked when the repeater is active, safeguarding the chimes. Further, a patented hammer blocker prevents rebound, thus preserving the purity of the tones.
Traditional Lange Specialty Of A Perpetual Calendar
The outsize double date at 12 o’clock is a signature A. Lange & Söhne aesthetic. In the Minute Repeater Perpetual introduced at Watches and Wonders 2025, it stands against an immaculate, glossy black enamel surface providing exceptional legibility. The remaining real estate is occupied by the subsidiary seconds, 24-hour display, moon-phase indicator and the perpetual calendar indications for the day of the week, month and the leap years. All these functionalities including the moon-phase display that requires a single day correction once every 122.6 years are driven by the newly developed Lange manufacture caliber L122.2. On its four-part dial, each of the sections is embellished with a circular lesene, a fine border in white gold for subtle aesthetic distinction.
Superlative Artisanal Finishing
In keeping with the known benchmarks of fine horological finishing at A. Lange & Söhne, the caliber L122.2 is offered artisanal grade finishing. That applies to each of the 640 components of the manually wound movement that packs in 72 hours of power reserve. Despite the major heft of what’s perceived through the sapphire-crystal caseback being occupied by the German silver three-quarter plate, we still find an ample exhibit of A. Lange & Söhne’s craftsmanship. It’s hallmarked by the free-hand engraved balance cock, the meticulously black polished hammers for the chiming mechanism as well as the exquisite solarization applied to the barrel bridge and the centrifugal-governor bridge.
A Technically Sophisticated Multiple-Complication Watch
While there have been a few, A. Lange & Söhne despite its close association with complicated watchmaking has been somewhat reserved in the category of chiming and repeater watches. At Watches and Wonders 2025, we get an entirely ground-up minute repeater watch which at 40.5 millimeters wide and 12.1 millimeters thick is acceptably well-proportioned even despite its abundant complexity. The Minute Repeater Perpetual offers a contemporary execution of traditional complications which very much feels at home in a catalog of sophisticated horological creations and a wealth of delights.
The Minute Repeater Perpetual crafted from 950 platinum is available as a limited edition of 50 pieces.
