Mastery Over Sapphire: The A. Lange & Söhne Minute Repeater Perpetual
In a world of loud and proud watches with skeletal intricate designs A. Lange & Söhne bring a refreshing classism to the table in the form of the Minute Repeater Perpetual, a mechanical wonder. I guess that’s where Watches and Wonders got it’s name from.
With a case diameter of 40.5 millimetres and a height of 12.1 millimetres, the platinum Minute Repeater Perpetual is worn on a black, hand-stitched alligator leather strap with a deployment platinum buckle.
It’s rare for us to discuss chiming mechanisms, but the Minute Repeater Perpetual has a slide integrated into the left-hand case flank that when actuated enables a chime. At the top of the hour it does a low pitch, and at quarter hours a double tone. Minutes elapsed since the last quarter hour are registered with a higher-pitched tone. The sounds are delivered via two hand tuned gongs built to harmonise with the platinum case material. Hand tuning is laborious, requiring multiple disassembly from a master watchmaker. This is one of the many reasons why The Minute Repeater Perpetual is limited to just 50 pieces.
The Moon-phase display is so finely tuned to emulate the phases that it would take 122.6 years for it to desync by a day. So maybe put a not to your great-grandchild to make sure they deal with that when it’s handed down to them. Likewise the calendar must only be corrected by a single day, but not until the first of March 2100. No worries about leap years.
It features a sapphire crystal caseback to allow an insight into the newly developed Lange manufacture calibre L122.2.
The face is elegantly clean with a glossy black surface but features the characteristic Lange outsized date. A movement at the 3 o’clock displays month and leap year indications. At the 6 o’clock is the beautiful moonphase and small seconds. The Moon-phase has the moons engraved in 750 gold and surrounded by more than 100 hand-engraved stars.
This is definitely an heirloom piece, for at least 50 people on the planet at most.