A. Lange & Söhne’s Latest Minute Repeater Watch Is Easier to ‘Read’—and Sounds Better, Too
On Tuesday, A. Lange & Söhne introduced its latest watch: the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater in Honeygold. The proprietary metal is coveted by collectors for its softer tone as opposed to the brighter and deeper hue found in traditional 18-karat yellow gold. So, the offering of one of its most elite complications in its most revered metal should be enough to convince some collectors to put down a deposit—but the Honeygold material also produces a sound unlike what minute repeaters of other metals make.
The piece was first revealed to select press and VIP collectors at the end of September during the Audrain classic car show in Newport, R.I. “You really hear a slight difference in the warmth of the sound based on the material,” explained Anthony de Haas, Lange’s director of product development. “Platinum is not loud. It’s very clean. Pink gold is warmer. White gold, I personally think is quite clumsy—boing! boing!—but louder. So, there is a difference and this Honeygold sounds very pure like platinum due to its density but slightly warmer than platinum.”
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De Haas is particularly zeroed into these nuances thanks both to his expertise in creating minute repeaters and grand sonneries—a craft he honed at Renaud et Papi for four years before heading to Lange to work on its high-level timepieces, where he’s worked for the last two decades—as well as his off-duty hobby as a drummer. “I used to play in a studio and I have 17 snare drums all packed with materials inside and they all sound different,” says de Haas comparing the variations in sound of his musical instruments with that of minute repeaters. To achieve the perfect sound, de Haas and his fellow master watchmakers had to disassemble and reassemble the timepiece multiple times—not an easy feat when you consider the complexity of creating a minute repeater movement in the first place.
Aside from its nuanced sound, the 44.2 mm timepiece remains the same as its predecessors—the model was first introduced in 2015—offering a very simple way of both reading and hearing the time. Unlike traditional minute repeaters, which chime the hours, quarter hours, and minutes to audibly tell the time, the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater chimes the hours, 10-minute intervals, and minutes. A low-pitched tone sounds for the hours, a high pitch followed by a low pitch for the 10-minute intervals, and a high-pitched tone for each minute. If you have ever tried to tell the time on a traditional minute repeater without reading the dial, you likely got it wrong the first or second time. But the Zeitwerk’s change from quarter hours to 10-minute intervals makes for a quicker “reading” of the time via the ear. As the time is read above you would hear seven low-pitch notes, a series of five high-pitch/low-pitch tones, and two high-pitched tones for 7:52.
The time it takes to do a full chiming sequence is roughly 15 seconds, according to de Haas. So, what happens if the time changes while the piece is still chiming? (For example, if you were to activate the minute repeater five seconds before the time changes.) De Haas says Lange had to create a system to account for this dilemma. “There’s a delay of switching the time,” he says of the mechanism. It stays on the time at which is was activated until the repeater is finished with its melody. “We had to build it so that you always hear what you read because it could be very confusing,” he says. “You don’t have that problem with a regular minute repeater with hands.” Furthermore, to ensure that the melody is not interrupted prematurely and the watch stops running, the striking mechanism cannot be activated if the remaining power reserve is less than 12 hours, indicated by a red dot within the power reserve indication 12 o’clock. Essentially, the piece is foolproof.
Powered by the manufacture caliber L043.5, which features a constant-force escapement between the barrel and the balance, the piece will be limited to just 30 pieces like previous versions, the platinum model from 2015 and the white-gold version from 2020. Swing by Lange’s brand-new boutique at 709 Madison Avenue to get a glimpse of this beauty in real life. As always with this manufacture, one must see it in person to appreciate the true beauty of the finishing of the movement visible through the casebook. This piece is no exception to that level of high-brow craftsmanship.
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