A. Lange & Söhne has added a Honeygold model to its Zeitwerk Minute Repeater collection.
The chiming watch was first launched in platinum in 2015, followed up in 2020 with a white gold piece with a blue dial, and has become an iconic reference thanks to its combination of oversized mechanical jumping hours and minutes and a decimal minute repeater.
Honeygold is a trademarked 18ct gold alloy that sits somewhere between yellow and rose gold.
Lange has broken with convention for the minute repeater because they can be set to chime at 10-minute intervals, rather than the usual quarter hours.
The watch makes three sounds when its chiming is activated using a pusher at 10 o’clock on the case.
A low- pitched tone marks the top of every hour hour, a double tone, high- then low-pitched, sounds for each elapsed ten-minute period and a high-pitched tone for each elapsed minute.
For example, for the time of 7:52 in the picture, the watch will make seven low-pitched tones, five double tones, and two high-pitched tones.
Watchmakers obsess over the purity of their chimes. Anthony de Haas, director product development at A. Lange & Söhne, explains his mission with the Zeitwerk. “Every minute repeater has its own, one-of-a-kind sound. Apart from the gongs and gong hammers, the case material has the greatest impact on the sound. Similar to a musical instrument, different tone colors and sound impressions are created, depending on the material used. That is also the case with our novelty in honey gold. It sounds different to all other materials.”
The new Zeitwerk Minute Repeater Honeygold, ref. 147.050F, is made in a limited run of 30 watches.
It uses Lange’s hand wound manufacture calibre L043.5 with a constant-force escapement in a 44.2mm case.
It is sold on a hand-stitched dark brown leather strap. Price is on request.