A. Lange & Söhne

chintu
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Great Engineering with an uninspiring Dial Design

A brilliant caliber that truly sets apart Lange from the crowd. But IMHO German engineering has overshadowed design from an aesthetic perspective.

So what is wrong.

Here goes...

1. Three literally intersecting registers. One has to simply let the minute hand reach the 20 - 30 minutes position when the hour hand is in the 10- 1 O'clock position; Combine with the seconds hand between 8 - 18 seconds position. A veritable chaos of overlapping hands and a sight that may not be the prettiest. Also the minutes register track does not have the number markings for 5 minute intervals, making it difficult to actually read off the exact minute at a glance. You may wish to try reading the minutes register and check if you can make out instinctively that it is at the 51st minute in Peter's image. I believe that Lange chose a regulator display layout essentially to enhance readability of hours minutes and seconds at all times and the effect here is the opposite.

2. The two window displays for day and month - Too small and seem too far apart, given the over dominance of the three interlocking registers. The oversized date in fact makes the other two apertures look smaller in relation.

3. The power reserve indicator at 6'O clock will perhaps only confuse the viewer with a linear set of numbers again!

4. The number of announcements cluttering the dial serve to add to the confusion - " Lange & Sohne", "Glashutte I/SA"; "14 Days Remontoir"; "Perpetual Calendar"!!; "Made in Germany". I really cannot imagine if any buyer that knows this watch (and I am sure a discerning one) will need to be reminded on the dial that he is looking at a perpetual calendar that has 14 day power reserve and has a constant force escapement. I am surprised that Lange chose to do this when refined understatement has been their hall mark.

Since the actual production pieces may still be some months away, perhaps it is not too late for Lange to revise the dial so that a brilliant piece of work is not let down simply because of a poor dial design. Lange has contrived to make their dial look like a Jacquet Droz..

Regds

Narsi