A close-up of the semitransparent enameling and hand-engraved details of the white gold dial.
If you’ve never heard of A. Lange & Söhne, let me begin by telling you the backstory. Founded in the eastern German state of Saxony in 1845, Lange produced extraordinary timepieces (mostly pocket watches) up until World War II. Relaunched by Ferdinand Adolph Lange’s visionary great-grandson Walter Lange in 1990, the Glashütte-based watchmaker has become a revered institution, deeply respected by the watch industry and a holy grail for watch collectors.
Offerings from A. Lange & Söhne are always beautiful and exceptionally rare. If you come across a Lange in the wild, you are in the presence of authority. Quality, craftsmanship and technical innovation pair with a quiet-yet-rigorous aesthetic, one that transcends trends with Lange’s classically understated watches. Over the past four decades, the evolution of A. Lange & Söhne has been deliberate, thoughtful and elegant. Yet, on rare occasions, surprises await.
The Cabaret Tourbillon Handwerkskunst is one such surprise. It’s an absolute stunner. Only 30 will be made. Not because Lange couldn’t sell more, but because handcrafting 30 Lange watches requires vast amounts of time and resources. Handwerkskunst (German for craftsmanship) timepieces have appeared since 2011 within the A. Lange & Söhne collection, wherein each watch receives the ultimate upgrade in finishing. Master craftspeople transform the case, movement and dial of each watch with next-level decoration to turn out the ultimate limited-edition piece.
“I think it’s an element of surprise, and, like the sales guys internally at Lange say, ‘Only 30? We could sell 50 or 100,’ but in the end, it’s always a difficult thing for us to produce,” says Lange Director of Product Development Anthony de Haas. “If you look at the dial, I think we have a loss in production of 50% because of the number of complex steps.”
The three-part solid white gold dial’s enamel finish requires days of intense precision to complete; nearly half of the dials made are lost to the finicky enamel firing process.
The fully decorated movement and highly precise tourbillon.
The dial’s precise finishing appears machine-made, but it is most certainly not. Various techniques are applied by hand on the dial: the manually engraved diamond “lozenge” pattern, the outer zone with Roman numerals, and hour markers separated by a thin rectangular line using an additional “tremblage” process. Coated with semitransparent enamel, the dial’s various shades of gray create a beautiful three-dimensional effect. At the top of the dial, the applied A. Lange & Söhne name appears to be floating on air, requiring yet another round of firing to set.
But that’s not all. Subdials for small seconds and a power reserve indicator are rhodium-colored gold, with hour and minute hands made of rhodiumed gold. The one-minute tourbillon, centered on the lower portion of the dial, features a matte tourbillon bridge with hand-applied black polishing, a most challenging finish that takes days to produce. The challenge of production may be huge, but the final results are magnificent.
The fully decorated movement and highly precise tourbillon.
Inside the Cabaret’s platinum case, you’ll find the manually wound Caliber L042.1, a new version of the world’s first mechanical wristwatch with stop-seconds for the tourbillon, first used by A. Lange & Söhne in 2008. The movement is finished as beautifully as the dial, visible through the sapphire caseback, echoing the colors and patterns found throughout. The manually wound movement features a 120-hour power reserve and many hand-engraved components, 370 parts in total, and 84 for the tourbillon alone. At first every movement is assembled, then disassembled, painstakingly cleaned, and lavishly decorated and polished—even parts that are not seen. It’s a process called “twofold assembly,” assuring the final movement, visible through the sapphire crystal caseback, is as close to flawless as possible. This complexity is arranged neatly within the confines of a rectangular case.
An extraordinary timepiece for a remarkable year, the Cabaret Tourbillon Handwerkskunst is the ultimate example of what makes a Lange & Söhne watch so special. If you’ve been collecting watches for a while, all roads eventually lead to A. Lange & Söhne.
ALSO NEW FOR 2021
Little Lange 1 Moon Phase, Ref. 182.886, a white gold watch with moon phase, date, small seconds, power reserve, set with 56 brilliant-cut diamonds featuring a dark blue gold-fluxcoated dial.
Langematik Perpetual, Ref. 310.028, a white gold perpetual calendar with an outsize date taking the months’ duration and leap years into account. Limited to 50 pieces.
Saxonia Thin, Ref. 211.088, a slim, elegant pink gold watch two-hand with gold-flux-faced dial in dark blue. Limited to 50 pieces.
Triple Split, Ref.424.037, a pink gold watch with a blue dial. The world’s first mechanical split-seconds chronograph that allows multi-hour comparative time measurements. Limited to 100 pieces.
