A. Lange & Söhne

Live Pictures of the RICHARD LANGE TOURBILLON “Pour le Mérite” HANDWERKSKUNST(Part 4 of 6)

 

“Pour le Mérite” is the most prestigious order bestowed in Prussia, and was mainly awarded to military personnels.  However, a German natural  scientist, Alexander von Humboldt seemed to be able to convince King Frederick William IV in 1842, to extend the distinction to special accomplishments in the science and art fields.The prestigious order is still conferred by the President of Germany  today.  Lange adopts the spirit and attributes of “Pour le Mérite” and associates the order to identify the manufactory's most complex and precise timepieces.





Alexander von Humboldt also used a chronometer during his expedition to Latin America which was built by Johann Heinrich Seyffert, a Saxon precision watchmaker to help him to calculate his ship position.  He chose a regulator model with clear display of hours, minutes and seconds arranged in non-overlapping triangular layout for good legibility under poor light conditions.  The RICHARD LANGE TOURBILLON “Pour le Mérite” was inspired by this J.H. Seyffret Chronometer No.93 . However the Lange's master designed in a twist, with full view of the tourbillon without sacrificing clear hour reading with an ingenious "shuttling hour" dial.  The hour sub-dial will appear in full from 6 to 12 o'clock.
After which, a chord of the hour-subdial will be 'dis-appear' to fully expose the tourbillon  for the owner to enjoy.



A simulation of the pivot-hour dial switching ...





The above picture gave an illustration how the pivoting hour-dial works.

On the left picture, at about time 5:59, the hour-dial is not in full, giving complete view of the tourbillon.  

Upon 6 o'clock the hour-dial turns 90-degree and fill up the hour-subdial (as per the picture on the right).  At 12:00, the pivoting dial turns 90-degree and returning the limelight to the tourbillon.

As everyone wished to view and try the RICHARD LANGE TOURBILLON “Pour le Mérite” HANDWERKSKUNST, I only have about ten minutes with this beauty.  For the technical specifications, please click here to access.     

Here are some quick pictures of the beauty ...






Featuring honey-coloured gold ( Vickers hardness of 300HV1 )case, which is about twice harder than ordinary yellow gold (135HV1).


The brand logo was done with relief engraving on the solid honey-coloured gold dial. 
After which followed by tremblage engraving which is more challenging to cut as the honey-coloured gold harder than conventional gold alloy.


This PLM HANDWERKSKUNST looks more appealing than the regular models with silver dial.









When the crown is pulled out,  the patented stop seconds mechanism activates, allowing the watch to be set with one-second accuracy.


The movement decoration also differs from the regular models.

 On the untreated German silver three-quarter plate ,radiant solarisation was applied instead stripes.


A diamond endstone as a bearing for the tourbillon.  Elaborate relief engraving (on the fourth-wheel bridge) is more like a subtractive process.  The required image is not touched.  Only the material of the surrounding wanted image were skillfully removing.  More challenging than direct engraving.

The regular production models did not have this relief engraving work. 








Stunning piece! 


Which model would you prefer? The regular model or the above PLM HANDWERKSKUNST model?



Kong




Continue in Part 5 of 6 : Product Presentation & Dinner




 


This message has been edited by Kong on 2011-09-25 07:56:05