INTRODUCING LANGE’S PINNACLE: RICHARD LANGE MINUTE REPEATER

We are probably more familiar with A. Lange & Söhne’s split-seconds chronographs, perpetual calendars, and tourbillons. That’s not to say that they don’t make chiming watches but the reality is that they haven’t made that many and when Anthony de Haas puts his mind to something, boy he gets it right.

Lange first released their interpretation of the chiming complication in 2011 with the Zeitwerk Striking Time in 2011, which chimed once every 15 minutes rather than on-demand like a conventional minute repeater. The technology was then applied to 2015’s Zeitwerk Minute Repeater but what we witness today is the most traditional implementation of a chiming watch at A. Lange & Söhne yet.

With its white, three-part enamel dial, the 50-watch limited edition platinum timepiece is delightfully appealing, not only acoustically but also visually; unlike its predecessor relations, the new Richard Lange Minute Repeater puts the focus on the chiming mechanism as a singular complication.

Based on traditional architecture: when the slide integrated into the left-hand case flank is actuated, the chiming mechanism strikes the hours, the quarter hours, and the minutes. It follows a mechanical programme that with two differently tuned gongs can strike 720 different sequences ‒ one for every minute in the twelvehour cycle. The hours sound at a lower pitch, the quarter hours with a double tone, and the minutes that have elapsed since the last quarter hour with a higher-pitched tone.

When the repeater sequence is activated, the sapphire-crystal caseback reveals exactly how the mirror-polished gong hammers execute the respective sequence of strikes on the two gongs that are wrapped around the movement. A refined system of artistically choreographed racks, snails, levers, and wheels controls the

191 part mechanism.

The hammers are each finished using black polishing techniques creating a mirror effect; the gongs themselves are bent by hand and polished to match. The bridge positioned directly above the centrifugal governor regulating the speed at which the hammers strike the gongs ‒ is skeletonised for to showcase the ballet dance when the music plays. According to Lange, the centrifugal governor inside the caliber L122.1 undergoes more than 2,000 revolutions per minute when the striking mechanism is engaged.