AS IF THE A. LANGE & SÖHNE 1815 TOURBILLON WASN’T
SPECIAL ENOUGH, THE GLASHUTTE-BASED WATCHMAKER
HAS ADDED ANOTHER LEVEL OF RARITY TO THIS
TECHNICALLY INTERESTING EXAMPLE OF THE FIRM’S
UNDERSTATED ELEGANCE.
ALREADY KNOWN AS THE WATCH THAT FEATURES
TOURBILLON STOP-SECONDS AND ZERO-RESET
FUNCTIONS, WHICH A. LANGE & SÖHNE COMBINED AND
DEBUTED TO MUCH ACCLAIM FOUR YEARS AGO, THE 1815
TOURBILLON HERE RECEIVES AN EQUALLY COMPELLING
AND COMPLICATED WHITE ENAMEL DIAL—A FIRST FOR THIS
PARTICULAR WATCH.
AS AN ADDITIONAL BOW TO EXCLUSIVITY, THE WATCH
WILL BE CASED IN PLATINUM, AND MADE AS A LIMITED
EDITION OF 100.
The v-shaped arresting
spring can be activated to
stop the tourbillon balance
at any time.
A
Lange & Söhne has long made a point
of combining precision-based technical
advances with classically designed dials
and cases. But, as explained by Anthony
de Haas, director of product development at A. Lange
& Söhne, the enamel dial here accentuates the watch’s
classic design, which is adapted from the compa-
ny’s pocket watches, known for Arabic numerals, a
“chemin de fer” (railway-track) minute scale and blued
steel hands.
Anthony de Haas,
“The basic idea was to build a credible bridge from
director of product
the origins of watchmaking to the present, ”De Haas
development at A.
explained in an interview provided by the watch-
Lange & Söhne
maker. To specifically denote that bridge, you’ll see a
red 12 at the top of the dial, which De Haas says is another nod to the history of
fine watchmaking.
“It brought liveliness to the dial of a pocket watch –and does it still today.”
He adds that this dedication to historic authenticity comes at a price: That
red numeral 12 has to be printed separately and baked alone during the dial
making process.
TWO FUNCTIONS
The two (patented) mechanisms (stop seconds and zero reset) allow the
watch to be stopped and then set with one-second accuracy. A. Lange & Söhne
devised the first zero-reset function in 1997 for the Langematik and then in
2008 patented the tourbillon stop seconds function separately.
“While a stop-seconds mechanism is quite common in a modern wristwatch,
it was for a long time not to be found in a tourbillon movement,” explains de
Haas. “The reason is that it was considered to be impossible to stop the oscil-
lating balance wheel inside the rotating tourbillon cage.”
A. Lange & Söhne solved this problem with a V-shaped braking spring.
That spring reliably stops the balance wheel, even if one arm of the spring is
resting against one of the three cage posts, De Haas adds. “By interacting with
the added zero-reset system, the tourbillon cage stops instantaneously and the
seconds hand jumps to the zero position, much like in a chronograph. That
makes it easy to synchronize the watch to the second.”
ENAMEL DIAL
The white enamel dial, at first glance anyway, may understate the time-
consuming processes required for A. Lange & Söhne to make any of the dials
for this limited edition.
“Enamel is capricious and can’t be hurried,” explains De Haas. “The process
takes several days, during which the various steps have to be repeated over
The A. Lange & Söhne 1815
Tourbillon, now with an
enamel dial and in a
platinum case
FALL 2018 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | 43