Say hello to another technologically impressive introduction from manufacture A.Lange & Sohne. The agenda here is pretty straight: PRECISION. It was in the year 2014, in their 1815 Tourbillon, A.Lange & Söhne combined a stop-seconds mechanism for the tourbillon with a ZERO-RESET time-setting feature. Simply put, the mechanisms allowed the watch to be stopped and then set with one-second accuracy. Now, this precision timekeeping instrument has been introduced in an edition limited to 100 pieces with a white enamel dial. You heard that right – WHITE ENAMEL DIAL.
Aesthetically quite understated except of course till you get to the large aperture at 6 o’clock which reveals the one minute tourbillon, suspended beneath a black polished bridge. The visual appeal is the icing on the cake really; with the focus being more on the actual mechanism. The tourbillon here doesn’t just offset the influence of gravity. Lange’s experts have engineered a logical refinement of the intricate filigreed complication by adding two patented mechanisms. First introduced in 1997 with the LANGEMATIK model, the ZERO-RESET mechanism interacts with the stop-seconds mechanism for the tourbillon – patented in 2008 – to assure one-second accuracy when stopping and setting the timepiece.
The lavishly finished manufacture calibre L102.1 which comprises of 262 parts, is crafted to the most exacting Lange quality standards and can be admired through the sapphire-crystal caseback. The exquisite movement decoration is crowned by a diamond end stone in a screwed gold chaton on the fourth-wheel bridge, which is adorned with a freehand engraving. The plates and bridges are made of untreated German silver.
Finally the highlight: That beautiful white Enamel Dial. According to A.Lange & Söhne some 30 manual processes are required to craft each dial. The 39.5-millimetre platinum cases are consecutively numbered from 001/100 to 100/100 and constitute an appealing frame for the perfectly crafted white enamel dial. The quest for historic authenticity stands out in details such as the separately printed and red-fired number 12. Blued-steel hands, Arabic numerals and a railway-track minute scale represent the classic personality synonymous with legendary nineteenth- and twentieth-century pocket watches.
The 1815 TOURBILLON is equipped with a black hand-stitched alligator leather strap secured with a solid-platinum deployant buckle.