A. Lange & Söhne make some of the most distinctive, rare and unusual watches in the world. The Zeitwerk Decimal Strike is a good example, a limited edition of 100 watches, with the jumping hours and minutes indications already seen on the Zeitwerk introduced in 2009, and on the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater presented in 2015.
Strikes once every ten minutes
The Zeitwerk Decimal Strike chimes once every hour on a lower-pitched gong, and once every ten minutes on a higher-pitched gong. The movement has to accumulate enough energy for the instantaneous advancement of one, two or three time discs, and for the striking function that takes place at the same time as the time indications jump. It achieves this by means of a patented constant-force device.
The striking mechanism of the Decimal Strike can be excluded
The hammers can be seen dial-side: the left-hand hammer strikes on the hour. The striking function can be excluded by pressing the button at 4 o’clock, and it is excluded automatically when you pull out the crown to set the time.
Characteristic discretion
The silver argenté dial has a large seconds subdial, and a power reserve indicator at the top, useful for this hand-wound watch. The time bridge that dominates the dial is in German silver, while the hands of the seconds subdial and power reserve are in honey gold. The case is 44.2 mm in diameter and 13.1 mm thick, made in the same honey gold, an alloy exclusive to Lange and of a colour with the sophisticated discretion that you would expect from this brand. The strap is in alligator leather with a pin buckle.
Hand-wound movement
Even though the watch has a very large mainspring barrel, power reserve is 36 hours, perhaps surprisingly low, but the power reserve indicator makes the task of winding the watch every morning into one of those little pleasures of life, a way of starting the day right. The movement, L043.7, can be seen through the sapphire caseback, and it has all the prestige finish typical of Lange, with a three-quarter plate in German silver with Glashütte ribbing, a hand-engraved balance cock, and a variable-inertia balance with cam-type weights for adjustment. The swan-neck regulator visible on the balance, with lateral screw and whiplash spring, is for beat adjustment. 528 parts, 78 jewels and 2 screwed gold chatons.
Price and reference
The Zeitwerk Decimal Strike is reference 143.050, and it costs €120,000. Limited edition of 100 pieces. Read more on the A. Lange & Söhne website.
