AN ANALOG WATCHMAKER IN A DIGITAL WORLD

The A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk has come a long way since its inception in 2009. We take a look at its digital footprint today with the release of the new Zeitwerk Date.

- Words: DARREN HO

The watch industry looked very different back in 2009, as the fallout from the financial crisis cast a long shadow over high-end luxury. This did not deter A. Lange & Söhne from launching one of its boldest designs ever, just 15 years after it had presented its first collection.

The jumping digital display is the upgraded version of the dragging hours and minutes, and wandering hours complications. Its forefather, the Semper Opera House's digital clock display with 5-minute indications, was developed by Ferdinand Adolph Lange's mentor and father-in-law, Johannes Christian Friedrich Gutkaes in the 1840s. It was the earliest instance of such a function. Josef Pallweber developed the digital display pocket watch in 1880 but encountered challenges with the reserve power of the mainspring. It was only in the 2000s, when Lange's development team had spent time researching past designs, that they figured out a solution to the digital display.

POWER TO THE ZEITWERK

The problem was power. In order to move oversized discs with large displays instantly every minute, this required sufficient power. That meant a mainspring with high tension and thickness was needed. However, this would release too much power for the escapement when fully wound and too little when mostly unwound.

Lange developed a thicker mainspring that was wound from the inside and unwound from the outside, and suspended from the barrel. This released more torque than usual; to regulate its output, the team adapted the remontoir d'egalite, a regulating secondary spring that releases power to the escapement over a minute, when the discs jump. This ensured the accuracy of the watch, and in fact meant that Lange could power complications beyond the digital display.

IMPROVING ON THE ORIGINAL