A. Lange & Söhne Watch front view
A. Lange & Söhne Watch front view
Image: Supplied

It’s only natural to feel the urge to curl up in the fetal position in response to the shift in world order. While the idiot Trump with his strong-arm tactics plays with our futures other ‘adults’ with egos bigger than their billion-dollar bank balances – read: Musk – behave appallingly while furthering their own agendas. Added to this the environmental changes and it’s no wonder we’re in a state of nolastalgia. 

For this reason we continue to seek solace and meaning in things of the past as evidenced by the growing interest in mechanical movements and strong classical revival trend in the watch industry. Function also takes precedence over complication with the key focus for luxury brands being on precision and reliability of their movements – now expected to comply with even stricter standards than the COSC. The emphasis has also shifted to practical complications such as chronographs, moon phases, annual calendars and multiple time zones. However, there is one exception to the rule this year: the tourbillon.

A most highly prized example is A. Lange & Söhne’s 1815 Tourbillon, first launched in 2014 and in which the manufacture first combined the stop-seconds mechanism for the tourbillon with the Zero-Reset time setting feature. These two patented mechanisms allowed the watch to be stopped and then set with one-second accuracy. Sleek and classic in appearance but very modern, this precision piece is updated this year in an edition of 100 with a white enamel dial. The new dial accentuates the classic design adapted from their nineteenth- and twentieth-century pocket watches, featuring Arabic numerals, railroad minute scale and blued steel hands. A further nod to the historic timepieces is evidenced in details such as the separately printed and red-fired number 12.

A. Lange & Söhne Watch back view
A. Lange & Söhne Watch back view
Image: Supplied

A. Lange & Söhne was established by Dresden watchmaker Ferdinand Adolph Lange in 1845 and his pocket watches are still coveted by collectors around the world. The company was expropriated after World War II but the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification offered his great-grandson Walter Lange an opportunity to bring the Saxon company back to life in 1990, in his home town of Glashütte. The first collection was released four years later and included the spectacular Tourbillon ‘Pour le Mérite’.

The large aperture of the 1815 Tourbillon at 6 o’clock reveals the one-minute tourbillon, suspended beneath a black polished bridge. Its elegant 39.5mm platinum case houses the exquisite German silver hand-decorated manufacture calibre L102.1, which can also be observed through the sapphire-crystal caseback. The watch is fitted with a black hand-stitched alligator leather strap and is priced at an elegantly rounded up R2,7m.

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