With its Expert Course the A. Lange & Söhne Academy launches a third round of its training programme.

With the establishment almost three years ago of the "A. Lange & Söhne Akademie", a multi-level series of training courses for authorised dealers, the traditional watch brand has been making an active contribution to the quality of advice pro vided in the supe rior watch retail sector. The programme focuses primarily on offering an experi ence of the uncom promising quality that the watchmakers at Lange show in their work and allows students to meet these craftsmen and women face to face and perform a range of tasks under their expert instruction.

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A. Lange & Sohne has introduced a new Saxonia at SIHH 2010, the Saxonia Annual Calendar. They have already offered a Perpetual Calendar function (which corrects for a period of many years) in the past, but now for the first time, they are offering an Annual Calendar function (only needs to be corrected once per year) in one of their timepieces. Offered first by Patek Philippe, in 1996, the Annual Calendar complication is now widely regarded as an important function in high-end watches. The new Saxonia Annual Calendar also offers a moonphase indicator and Lange's iconic outsize date window.

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Last year, Lange introduced the Zeitwerk. For SIHH 2010, they unveiled the Lange Zeitwerk "Luminous", like the original Zeitwerk, but with an even more contemporary design and, of course, "luminous" (white Superluminova coated jumping hours and minutes). I was surprised to hear that Lange used PVD on any of their watches, however, the PVD coated German silver time bridge probably looks great in-person. Especially on top the dark-tinted sapphire crystal glass that essentially acts as the dial on this Lange masterpiece. Viewing the numbers, in the dim lighting, behind the tinted glass, while the hours and minutes advance, is surely an amazing sight.

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Today is the start of the week long SIHH 2010 watch show in Geneva, Switzerland. At the show are many of the top-tier brands in the world of watchmaking. Including one of my favorites, German watchmaker A. Lange & Sohne. They have released a number of new novelties, which I will publish today and throughout the week. But for starters, the watch that caught my eye first, is the new 1815 Chronograph. Based on the popular Datograph and its L951.5 movement, the new 1815 adds a 60-hour power reserve and a proprietary balance spring. It is a flyback chronograph, like the Datograph, for which it is based on, but it does not include the oversize date window at 12 o'clock or the patented one push date corrector at 10 o'clock. It does, however, have blued hands for hours, minutes, seconds, chrono seconds and chrono minutes. It also utilizes number markers instead of Roman numerals. Even with these changes, it still exhibits the good looks and heritage of the Datograph, but with a style all its own.

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A. Lange & Söhne just sent me an email saying that they will be live blogging from SIHH 2010, starting this Monday. The SIHH (Salon International Haute Horlogerie) show happens in Geneva, Switzerland (January 18th- January 22nd). Monday morning, Lange will begin revealing their 2010 novelties, live online here.

Jaeger-LeCoultre will be running a similar live blog, but you have to login to watch the show on JLC's site here.

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Last week, A. Lange & Sohne released a preview of their new Lange 1 Daymatic timepiece. It will be introduced next month, at the SIHH show, in Geneva Switzerland. The original Lange 1 premiered over 15 years ago, and has been a icon of the prestigious Glashutte manufacture ever since. For 2010, Lange has created an all new Lange 1, the Daymatic. The new timepiece, of course, features an exclusive in-house movement, but unlike previous models, this one is self-winding.

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A. Lange & Sohne, of Glashütte, Germany, has just announced a new rose gold version of the LANGE 31. The LANGE 31 was originally introduced two years ago, in a platinum case. Over the last 2 years, senior designer, Martin Schetter, has worked with his design team to create a new variation. Two years seems like a whole lot of time, just to create a new variation of a timepiece. It is, but, Lange imposes so many quality and design requirements when creating a timepiece, that it takes this long. The results are worth the wait, as this Saxon manufacture produces some of the most beautiful timepieces in the world.

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A Lange & Sohne recently introduced a new model, the Lange Zeitwerk. It features a jumping numerals mechanism that displays hours and minutes in a larger format - for excellent legibility. Inside is a manufacture calibre L043.1 that utilizes a constant-force escapement and a patented barrel.

Jumping Numerals

"The manufacture calibre L043.1 features a jumping numerals mechanism for hours and minutes. Designed according to the Lange principle, it consists of two minute discs and a large hour ring. Precisely once a minute, a constant-force escapement generates the necessary switching impulse. Viewed through the caseback, the movement presents a host of further forwarding-looking inventions."

Patented Barrel

"The patented mainspring barrel delivers a large amount of energy, especially when all three discs need to be simultaneously advanced at each full hour. As the mainspring relaxes, the barrel rotates in the minimized friction bearing. Conversely, the mainspring barrel bearing with the higher friction rating is involved while the watch is being wound. Thus, a slightly greater effort is required when winding the watch, but in return, more of the energy stored in the mainspring remains available for powering the movement. Additionally, the size of the mainspring can be reduced without any concessions in terms of energy yield."

Constant-Force Escapement

"A constant-force escapement is positioned between the barrel wheel and the balance. This patent-pending mechanism has two crucial functions. On the one hand, it generates the switching steps for the instantaneous jumps of the hour and minute displays, using the strike-train principle with warning followed by drop-and-release as often found in striking clocks. Never before has such a mechanism been integrated in a wristwatch. On the other hand, the constant-force escapement drives the balance with nearly uniform power during the entire autonomy period and thus enhances the rate stability of the movement."

First Impression

The Zeitwerk's level of complication is quite remarkable. It features a patented mainspring barrel that stores up to 36-hours of power reserve (displayed at 12 o'clock). A "constant-force" escapement converts the mainspring energy equally to power the analog seconds subdial (at 6 o'clock), as well as the mechanical-digital jumping hours (at 9 o'clock) and minutes (at 3 o'clock). The jumping numerals disc design is so precise, that the switching action actually allows an attentive listener to acoustically distiguish between a single minute advance (1416 times a day) and a collective progression at the full hour (24 times day). This allows you to hear the time, kind of like a minute repeater. Amazing.

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