Among the wristwatches with chiming mechanisms, minute repeaters are the most challenging and interesting complications that precision watchmaking has to offer. They make the time audible with one-minute accuracy. At A. Lange & Söhne, they have a tradition that dates back to the era of pocket watches in the late 19th century. In 2013, the GRAND COMPLICATION ushered in an exciting comeback for the minute repeater in combination with a multitude of fascinating functions such as the rattrapante chronograph and the perpetual calendar. Two years later, the ZEITWERK MINUTE REPEATER with its digital display adapted to the decimal sound format challenged the innovative spirit of the manufactory yet again. The RICHARD LANGE MINUTE REPEATER puts the focus on the chiming mechanism as a singular complication.

A melody for every minute

The complex design of the RICHARD LANGE MINUTE REPEATER is based on the traditional sound format: 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 twelve-hour 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. The time shown in the image – 1.51 a.m. or 1.51 p.m. – would thus be struck with a low tone, three double tones, and six high tones. 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 RICHARD LANGE MINUTE REPEATER is designed to superb acoustic quality standards. The tuning effort involved corresponds to that of an exquisite musical instrument. A lucid, clear, and reverberant sound is assured by the hand-tuned gongs that harmonise perfectly with the acoustic characteristics of platinum, the case material. As far as the hammers are concerned, the key issues are material, shape, size, weight, and hardness – and above all, just like with a piano, strike. All components are carefully harmonised with one another by a Lange master watchmaker. This requires multiple disassemblies, reworking, reassembly and finally testing. Much of the manufacture time is thus dedicated to perfecting the sound.

Beyond the classic minute repeater

In line with the lofty ambitions of the A. Lange & Söhne brand, the acoustic complication was decisively improved. In the RICHARD LANGE MINUTE REPEATER, three technical facets stand for the quest of the Saxon manufactory to continuously take watchmaking artistry a step further. Thus, the chiming mechanism has a pause elimination feature. It skips the otherwise common pause between the hour and minute strike when no double tone must be struck for the quarter hours in the first 14 minutes after the top of the hour. To prevent damage to the chiming mechanism, it was equipped with a safety device so that the minute repeater cannot be activated while the crown is pulled out. Further, the crown cannot be pulled out when the chiming mechanism is active. Finally, the patented hammer blocker causes the hammers to dwell in their home position for fractions of a second after the gongs have been struck. Thus, the rebounding hammers cannot bounce and strike the gongs again.

An immaculate frame

The new RICHARD LANGE MINUTE REPEATER follows the long-standing principle of A. Lange & Söhne that construction and design must interact. The platinum case has a diameter of 39 millimetres and a height of only 9.7 millimetres. It features the typical satin-finished flanks and prominently domed strap lugs. The white enamel dial has a solid-gold core and is crafted in-house. It has three parts and emphasises the expectations imposed on artisanal immaculacy. The outer ring and the middle part of the main dial as well as the subsidiary seconds dial are hand-crafted individually in an elaborate process before all three parts are joined together. The white radiant background assures a crisp contrast for the thermally blued steel hands. The printed inscriptions are burned into the surface. They include the slender Roman numerals typical of the watch family. Accentuated by the peripheral railway track minute scale and the subsidiary seconds at six o’clock, they emphasise the classic character of the watch. A fine red line above the twelve adds a subtle colour accent. The watch is worn on a black, hand-stitched leather strap with a platinum deployant buckle. The edition is limited to 50 pieces.

A superbly crafted new movement

The new, manually wound movement L122.1 addresses all expectations that are associated with the A. Lange & Söhne brand. The sapphire-crystal caseback reveals the entire scope of artisanal finissage. It includes the freehand engraving of the balance cock with the eye-catching whiplash spring. With its lateral setscrew, it can be used to precisely adjust the interaction between the pallet lever and escapement, referred to as the “beat”. Six bearing jewels are set in polished gold chatons on a three-quarter plate made of untreated German silver and decorated with Glashütte ribbing. Four of the chatons are secured with thermally blued screws. The winding train, decorated with solarisation, is visibly integrated into the plate.

Additionally, the partially visible chiming mechanism features some finish details. The gong hammers are elaborately finished with black polish and the manually bent gongs are polished as well. All bridges of the chiming mechanism are visually paired with solarisation. Among them, the bridge above the centrifugal governor is skeletonised. Generous openings reveal the most dynamic component of the movement: balanced with two mirror-polished gold weights, the centrifugal governor rotates at a speed of more than 2,000 revolutions per minute when the striking mechanism is running. This guarantees the uniform cadence of the strikes.

The 69th Lange manufacture calibre features a screw balance and a freely oscillating Breguet balance spring made in-house with an overcoiled external Breguet terminal curve. The escapement operates at a frequency of 21,600 semi-oscillations per hour (3 hertz). The mainspring barrel delivers power for up to 72 hours.

For connoisseurs and enthusiasts, the special fascination of Glashütte’s fine watchmaking is constituted in the precision and precisely calculated proportions, which lend the fine timepieces their harmonious and elegant appearance. From the numerals and indices to the hands and indications and the case with the bezel, strap and buckle – the aura of every A. Lange & Söhne wristwatch results from the perfect interaction of its details, of which many are barely visible.

The fine mechanical microcosm inside is also designed in fractions of millimetres. Behind the sapphire-crystal case back, where a myriad of tiny components come together in perfect harmony, it reflects the outer perfection like a second face. For instance, the L041.2 calibre of the RICHARD LANGE in pink gold comprises 199 parts, while 279 combine in the L044.1 calibre of the white-gold RICHARD LANGE “Pour le Mérite” with a black dial – although its hand-assembled chain, which is made up of 636 individual components, is only counted as one part.

Each of these components, some of them barely visible to the naked eye, reliably fulfil their functions every second – for years and decades to come. The balance spring, or hairspring, is the heart of this mechanical masterpiece and as such directly responsible for its rate accuracy.

Made of a temperature-compensating alloy, it causes the balance wheel, the heart of every mechanical watch, to oscillate and is therefore crucial for the accuracy of operation. Its measurements require a good imagination: the tiny powerhouse has a thickness of only up to three-hundredths of a millimetre and weighs a mere 2.5 milligrams. It is hard to imagine: if the thickness variation of the wire during production differs only by 0.001 millimetres, this inaccuracy will cause the watch to be off by about 30 minutes per day.

Elaborate, demanding and very rare: the manufacturing process of the balance spring

Today, the in-house production of balance springs represents the cutting edge. Only a few watchmaking companies worldwide have mastered the traditional manufacturing process, during which an ultra-thin spring is formed from a metal wire with a diameter of 0.5 millimetres.

Since 2003, A. Lange & Söhne has belonged to this small circle. Ten years of development went into the time-consuming manufacturing process of this element, which is so essential for the watch’s accuracy. Today, the manufactory is able to fabricate individual balance springs for each calibre, which are optimally designed to meet their requirements. In doing so, the experts determine the appropriate number of windings as well as the correct diameter and ultimately define the optimal final curve.

These calculations are among the most demanding tasks in watchmaking. Here, precision is also taken to extremes: the rate is ten-thousandths of a millimetre. With the help of a specially developed rolling process – rolls of this type are not commercially available – the fine wire’s thickness of about 0.025 millimetres is achieved. 

However, the fabrication of the balance spring is not only complex in terms of process engineering – the material is crucial to achieve optimal oscillation. 

A watchmaker, scientist and scholar: Richard Lange

Richard Lange, the eldest son of Ferdinand Adolph Lange, was a luminary in the field of materials science and probably the most inventive mind of the Lange watchmaking dynasty. He and his brother Emil took over the helm of the family business after their father’s death in 1875. While Emil took charge of commercial affairs, Richard was responsible for technical supervision. Numerous patents testify to his expert skills. Health reasons caused him to leave the company twelve years later. However, he continued to work tirelessly in the background as a freelancer, writer and inventor. In particular, he dealt intensively with scientific questions in the field of watch precision and studied research works from other disciplines – always striving to improve the accuracy and rate performance of pocket watches. Richard studied, researched and designed until his old age – many other patents are testament to his inexhaustible ingenuity.

Material science: the key to precision

In 1930, he defined what he considered the most suitable composition for balance springs under the title “Metal Alloy for Watch Springs”. Following his recommendations, beryllium is still added to the alloy today. The introduction of the nickel-steel balance, initiated by his brother Emil shortly after the turn of the century, had already made him aware of the important role of metallurgy in the field of oscillation systems. It was a publication of the steel tycoons Krupp and Siemens, which dealt with nickel-iron alloys in the late 1920s, that caught his attention.

In a 60-page research paper, Siemens engineers Georg Masing and Otto Dahl discussed the subject of beryllium-nickel alloys, coming to the conclusion that adding a small amount of beryllium increases elasticity. Richard saw the great potential that this discovery also offered for the watch industry. Thanks to its special properties, beryllium was predestined to improve both the elasticity and the hardness of the elinvar spring.

Richard immediately applied for a patent with the number 529945 at the German patent office. The independent patent, issued on 19 February 1930 reads as follows: “Metal alloy for watch springs, characterised by the addition of 1% to 2/2.5% of beryllium to the alloy, which is made of iron, copper, nickel, Invar and elinvar. Up to 6% of beryllium is added to achieve higher hardness.” In doing so, Lange recognised and used the practical benefits of the research results even before Siemens.

Richard Lange died on 29 October 1932 at the age of 86. But his legacy is kept alive today in the watch family dedicated to him: the timepieces with the name RICHARD LANGE pay homage to the precision watch, to whose fame he had greatly contributed. With their high accuracy, superb readability, reliability, and robustness, the timepieces meet the very specifications that the inventor once defined.

Ever since it was launched in 2016, Lange’s first new-era model with jumping seconds has stood out with its sleek design and mechanical finesse. Its regulator dial with the large seconds circle at the top draws the attention to the smallest of the three units of time. The smaller hour and minute circles arranged beneath it are positioned to the left and right.

Subtlety in colour and the symmetry of the circles recall Bauhaus design concepts. The clear contrast of white markings on a black background adds a new aesthetic dimension to the regulator architecture emphasised by its red accents. The display in the lower zone where the hour and minute indications intersect is a special eye-catcher: Ten hours before the unwound state is reached, it switches from white to red, reminding the wearer that the watch needs to be rewound soon.

The indication of the time units with three overlapping displays dates back to Dresden-based astronomer and watchmaker Johann Heinrich Seyffert. His famous pocket chronometer No. 93, completed in 1807, was the first watch with such a dial arrangement. Despite its historic roots, the RICHARD LANGE JUMPING SECONDS is decidedly contemporary and functional. Against the dark background of the flat dial, the hands – in solid gold for the hours and minutes, and in rhodiumed steel for the sweep seconds – stand out prominently. The interplay between contrasting bright and dark colours is echoed by the black alligator leather strap with a white-gold buckle.

With superior rate accuracy and eminent legibility, the RICHARD LANGE watch family continues the tradition of scientific observation watches at A. Lange & Söhne. Its name pays tribute to Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s first-born son. Throughout his entire life, Richard Lange was committed to harnessing the latest scientific insights in the interest of progress in watchmaking. A metal alloy for balance springs, still used today, is one of his 27 patented inventions. In an evolved form, the stoppable jumping sweep seconds conceived by his father was granted one of the first patents in Germany in 1877.

The RICHARD LANGE JUMPING SECONDS carries the concept of the observation watch over into the 21st century. With its unique combination of a constant-force escapement for the seconds, jumping seconds, and ZERO-RESET function, it showcases the key hallmarks of an observation watch: dependability, precision, and clarity. In the L094.1 manufacture calibre, three complex mechanisms interact to drive the balance with a uniform amount of energy across the maximum power reserve of 42 hours, to advance the seconds hand from marker to marker 86,400 times a day, and to activate the ZERO-RESET function.

Acting as a spring-powered remontoir system, the constant-force escapement of the RICHARD LANGE JUMPING SECONDS transforms the gradually declining torque of the mainspring barrel into identical bursts of energy that are delivered to the escapement in one-second intervals. Additionally, switching impulses are generated for the jumping seconds. The first pocket watches with this complication date back to the late 18th century. As precursors of the chronograph, they were used for time measurements with one-second resolution. They helped naval navigators find their way, assisted astronomers in determining celestial meridian passages and allowed physicians to measure heart rates.

When the crown is pulled out, the patented ZERO-RESET mechanism of the RICHARD LANGE JUMPING SECONDS stops the cam-poised balance wheel, advances the seconds hand to the zero position as in a chronograph, and thus simplifies time setting. For this purpose, the flow of power from the constant-force escapement to the going train must be interrupted. This is done with a proprietary multi-disc clutch. It steadies the seconds hand in its position as it incrementally jumps forward, making it possible to reliably block and re-establish the flow of power.

The finissage of the 390-part manually wound movement complies with the strictest Lange standards. Together, the bridges made of untreated German silver and decorated with Glashütte ribbing, the hand-engraved balance cock, the eight screwed gold chatons, and the lavishly decorated and polished surfaces give the RICHARD LANGE JUMPING SECONDS its classic Lange face on the movement side as well.