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This photo was taken earlier December 6, 2010 during the A. Lange & Sohne 165th Anniversary Celebration Gala dinner party in Dresden, Germany at the Dresden Royal Palace. This image (above) shows the new Lange CEO, Wilhelm Schmid, addressing a group of over 100 journalists from around the world. Schmid will officially take over as the CEO of A. Lange & Sohne at the first of the year. Currently, Jerome Lambert, who also attended this dinner celebration, is the interim CEO of Lange, and the permanent CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre. Tomorrow, we will be touring the A. Lange & Sohne manufactory, boutique, as well as attending a new product press conference - so expect more photos soon.

It has always been the conviction of A. Lange & Sohne that innovation and tradition need not be contradictory. Long ago, Ferdinand A. Lange and his sons already relied on scientific research results when they wanted to come yet another step closer to their ambitious goal of building the world's best watches. Current-generation Lange engineers and calibre designers often collaborate with universities and research institutes to harness the latest scientific and technical advances for discerning owners of Lange timepieces. But then as now, a strict rule applies: each innovation must be genuinely useful. Three examples from the 2010 debut collection reflect on the forwarding-looking facets of the traditional craft of watchmaking. In Search of Harder Gold Saxony's metallurgical involvement with gold is rooted deep in history, probably even dating back to medieval alchemy. In that era, it was believed that the enigmatic philosopher's stone was capable of turning base metals into gold. A happenstance result of the best-chronicled efforts of this kind was the invention of European porcelain in Dresden 300 years ago. Even Lange failed to discover the philosopher's stone, but succeeded in developing a gold alloy that outperforms all currently known alloys with respect to hardness. Chemically speaking, the novel "honey-coloured" gold is also an 18-carat gold alloy, which means that it consists of 75 percent pure gold. The fascinating colour, which seems to lie midway between pink and white gold, is attribut-able to its copper and zinc content. In combination with a special thermal treatment, a slight admixture of manganese is responsible for its extraordinary hardness. Ranging between 300 and 320 HV on the Vickers scale, honey-coloured gold is more than twice as hard as yellow gold: its value lies between 135 and 150 HV. In the Vickers hardness test, an accurately defined force is exerted to press the tip of a diamond pyramid into the surface of the material under investigation. A special equation is then used to calculate the mate-rial's hardness based on the length of the diagonal of the permanent indentation. The benefit of the new alloy is obvious: with regard to its scratch resistance, honey-coloured gold beats all other gold alloys. Hardness Values of Various Gold Alloys 18 carat gold alloysAlloy constituentsVickers hardness Yellow goldSilver, copper135-150 HV Pink goldCopper, silver155-170 HV White goldPalladium, copper, nickel170 HV Honeycoloured goldCopper, manganese, zinc300-320 HV The Lange Zeitwerk stands for a new face of time and with its precisely jumping numerals and iconic design vocabulary has evoked enthusiastic responses. The new "Luminous" version makes it possible to tell the time even in darkness. The technical challenge behind this development was to charge the numerals with light energy even though they are mostly concealed beneath the dial for the better part of a day. Lange's specialists found the solution: a sapphirecrystal dial with a semi-transparent but UV-permeable coating. The phenomenon is best explained with the principle of inverted sunglasses: the transmission of light in the visible spectrum is attenuated to such a degree that only the outlines of the disc mechanism can be seen. Conversely, the light in the ultra-violet (UV) range from 250 to 430 nanometres is allowed to pass unhindered, so that the Superluminova numerals can be charged up with photonic energy �C enough at any rate to keep them glowing for several hours at night. Why Lange's Stars Shine Brighter The 1815 Moonphase symbolises Lange's ongoing quest for the ultimate in precision. Its moon-phase transmission was calculated to such a degree of accuracy that it takes over one thousand years for the display to be off by one day relative to the real position of the moon. A closer look at the coating of the lunar disc provides some hints as to how obsessed Lange's experts are when it comes to details: Their goal was to technically emulate the fascination of the nocturnal sky. Together with the scientists who are now enlisted to help produce the lunar discs, they developed a new coating process that comes closer than ever to the perfection of nature. The conventional technologies used so far in the watchmaking industry to coat lunar discs simply could not live up to lofty expectations of the Lange technologists with respect to colour brilliance and contour definition of the decorative elements. The new process involves the application of extremely hard carbon films on the solid-gold lunar discs by way of physical vapour deposition �C known as PVD. The precision adjustment of the surface roughness delivers the desired colour hue combined with very high wear resistance. Interference effects cause the eye of the beholder to perceive a deep-blue canopy closely resembling a clear starry night. The stars are then cut out with an excimer laser of the type also used for manufacturing highly integrated semiconductor circuitry. The technology is ultra-precise: No burning whatsoever takes place in the boundary zones. With flawlessly smooth edges, the stars are endowed with a crisp brilliance that simply makes them seem to shine brighter.