a. lange & sohne 303.021

SIHH 2010: A. Lange & Sohne 1815 Moonphase (Ref. 212.050)The new A. Lange & Sohne 1815 Moonphase watch features a moon-phase complication, which is so accurate it takes 1058 years for the watch to miss a day from the lunar month.Among the models presented last week by A. Lange & Sohne, there is a small group of limited edition watches that stand out from the line with their intricately decorated movements, guilloched dials and amber-colored gold cases that are both pleasant to look at and harder to scratch. These are A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Tourbillon with stop seconds, A. Lange & Sohne Tourbograph Pour le Merite and the A. Lange & Sohne 1815 Moonphase model.Let us start with the most affordable hand-wound watch featuring a moon-phase complication.The watch comes equipped with the Lange L943.2 hand-wound caliber, which, as usual, is made totally in-house, precision-adjusted in five positions and decorated so thoroughly and tastefully, it makes Breguet wanting to eat its own heart out.The movement’s three-quarter plate is made of German silver with sunburst pattern and its balance cock is made in the same amber-colored as the case and is also decorated by hand.The watch features a perfect dial layout where the moon-phase display balances the small second hand counter, while the two are visually united with the engine-turned guilloche pattern. Large Arabic numerals and heat-blued hour and minute hands provide for contrasting, highly-legible dial layout.The watch will be produced in a limited lot of only 265 pieces.

SIHH 2010: A. Lange & Sohne Saxonia Annual CalendarA. Lange & Sohne went a long way developing the most complicated in-house movements and an addition to their extensive line of models of an Annual Calendar watch was only a matter of time. I am so glad it is a Saxonia model that successfully combines elegant appearance with intelligent design.A little bit of total disclosure here: when it comes to dressy watches, I am a sucker for Lange. Okay, now that I have said it I can more or less safely admit that my heart is bleeding when I read a torrent of press releases issued by the German manufacture.I mean, some of these models cost like a decent three-bedroom suburbian house and are still out of my reach especially now, when the global financial crisis finally starts showing its ugly face (Yeah, I think this is just the beginning of the real crisis and Greece is just one of the first real countries to call it quits on its enormous sovereign debt. God, I wish I was too pessimistic about this.) Let’s get down to business, though.The new A. Lange & Sohne Saxonia Annual Calendar comes powered by their recently developed L085.1 SAX-0-MAT automatic movement. Designed and built totally in-house, decorated and assembled by hand, this terrific example of German ingenuity sports Lange’s Zero-Reset function that makes the small second hand at 6 o’clock either fall back or spring forward to zero depending whether it is between 0 and 30 or 30 and 60 seconds position.Being an Annual Calendar, the watch is capable to show current date, day of week, month and even moon phase. It is not a perpetual calendar, so you will have to adjust the watch once a year, which is, let’s face it, still rather annoying. On the other hand, a perpetual calendar with leap year function would be a lot more expensive and more demanding to proper servicing, too.The movement seats inside a rather compact white (Ref. 330.026) or pink gold (Ref. 330.032) case 38.5 mm in diameter and only 9.8 mm in height, which is really wonderful for an automatic watch.