HANDS ON: The A. Lange & Sohne Zeitwerk Minute Repeater
Felix Scholz
UPDATED WITH PICTURES AND PRICE.
One of the standouts of SIHH is the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater. Today we had an opportunity to handle it, and hear it chime. It’s an impressive and lovely watch, and quite an innovative minute repeater, involving 6 patents. I particularly like the feature that doesn’t allow the repeater to be activated if the power reserve drops to 12 hours (to preserve the timekeeping functionality). Also nifty is the feature that disconnects the crown if the repeater is activated, preventing damage to the 771 part movement. It’s also important to note that this is a decimal repeater, rather than chime hours, quarters and minutes like most – this chimes hours, tens of minutes and minutes. What you see is what you here. The Zeitwerk Minute repeater will be priced at 440,000 euro.
Scroll down for live pictures.
The A Lange & Sohne Zeitwerk, with it’s seemingly oxymoronic avant garde yet classic design has been a huge hit for the German house since it was released. And this year, the brand new A. Lange & Sohne Zeitwerk Minute Repeater is a pretty significant landmark for the brand. It’s their first movement that strikes hours, ten-minute intervals and minutes. The previous iteration, the Striking Time struck hours and quarters only. In a SIHH with lots of excellent minute repeaters, this is one of the best looking (we can’t tell you how it sounds – as we haven’t heard it yet, but stay tuned).
SPECIFICATIONS:
ZEITWERK MINUTE REPEATER Ref. 147.025F
Movement: Lange manufacture calibre L043.5, manually wound, crafted to the most exacting Lange quality standards, decorated and assembled by hand; precision-adjusted in five positions; three- quarter plate made of untreated German silver; balance cock engraved by hand; constant-force escapement
Movement parts: 771
Jewels: 93
Screwed gold chatons: 3
Escapement: Lever escapement
Oscillator: Shock-resistant balance wheel with eccentric poising weights; balance spring manufactured in-house, frequency of 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour; precision beat adjustment system with lateral setscrew and whiplash spring
Power reserve: 36 hours when fully wound if the striking mechanism is not activated
Functions: Time display in hours and minutes with precisely jumping numeral discs, subsidiary seconds with stop seconds, power- reserve indicator, decimal minute repeater
Operating elements: Crown for winding the watch and setting the time; pusher for activating the striking mechanism
Case dimensions
Diameter: 44.2 millimetres; height: 14.1 millimetres
Movement dimensions
Diameter: 37.7 millimetres; height: 10.9 millimetres
Crystal and back: Sapphire crystal (Mohs hardness 9)
Case: Platinum
Dial: Solid silver, rhodié
Time bridge: Black rhodiumed German silver
Hands: Rhodiumed gold
Strap: Hand-stitched alligator leather strap, black
Buckle: Lange deployant buckle in platinum