Given how emblematic the Lange 1 is to A. Lange & Sohne, you could be forgiven for dreaming of a perpetual calendar in this execution – the A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar. Until this year though, that would have been a dream because the A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar did not exist. Your brain might protest, as mine did, but the image flirting with your consciousness is the A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar. In fact, the 2021 A. Lange & Sohne Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar looks almost exactly like its tourbillon-sporting elder sibling so this might mean that in the years to come, you might think that this model has always been a part of the collection. In the new Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar, which will be the shorthand for the watch for the rest of this story, the day/night indicator is integrated into the moon phase display – an innovation that debuted in 2016 in the Lange 1 Moon Phase, and a version of which we will see in another new model this year.
Anyway, the Glashutte manufacture reminds us that it did indeed have a dedicated perpetual calendar from 2001, with the Langematik Perpetual Calendar. That watch is a world away from this one though, with the display of information in the Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar leaning into the clean asymmetry of the Lange 1 collection. To recap, this means the month indication is a ring round the dial, with a marker at 6 o’clock, and that a patented system replacing the usual 48-step cam system, is in place here; this was in place with the tourbillon perpetual calendar from 2012. If you are curious about it, read up as much as you can on that tourbillon model – I can assure you that we are looking through our archives now. As you will guess, the automatic L021.3 movement here is new because A. Lange & Sohne; it is the 67th calibre from the manufacture.
There are two versions of the 2021 Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar, one in pink gold, with solid silver dial, and one in white gold with a striking solid pink gold dial. Both are 41.9mm and rather thick at 12.1mm, which is unsurprising given how perpetual calendar complications are layered. The white gold model with pink gold dial is limited to 150 pieces.
Next we have the A. Lange & Sohne Little Lange 1 Moon Phase, which is of course very closely related to the Lange 1 Moon Phase. At 36.8mm and 10mm thick, both versions of the 2021 Little Lange 1 Moon Phase are hardly diminutive, but we digress. The new model marks the first time the Lange 1 Moon Phase has gotten a scaled down companion, and marks the second variation of this moon phase execution in 2021. This one is accurate to 122.6 years, just like the version on the Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar, but sans day/night indicator. This indicator is also continuously impulsed, as opposed to the Perpetual Calendar version, which receives its energy in discrete steps. What draws the eye first on this 2021 Moon Phase model is the dark blue gold flux dial, which looks like a starry night sky. We are not sure what this gold flux is, but we will find out in our coming discussion with A. Lange & Sohne Manufacturing Director Tino Bobe.
Finally we reserve a mention for the always incredible A. Lange & Sohne Triple Split, still the world’s only mechanical wristwatch capable of measuring additive and comparative elapsed times for 12 hours. In 2021, there is a new variant that is dressed in a pink gold case with a fetching blue dial. It might be the most attractive Triple Split to date.
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