A. Lange & Söhne GRAND COMPLICATION

Limited to only six copies: The most complicated and exclusive timepiece by A. Lange & Söhne leads to the highest regions of precision watchmaking.

The GRAND COMPLICATION by A. Lange & Söhne features a variety of fascinating functions and proves once again the ability of the Saxon master clockmakers to lead their traditional art to ever new heights. The watchmaker's masterpiece with the caliber number L1902 combines a multitude of elaborately fined individual parts into the canon of the most demanding complications that precision watchmaking has to offer: percussion with large and small chime, minute repetition, rattrapante chronograph with minute counter and flashing second As well as perpetual calendar with moon phase display.

The development of GRAND COMPLICATION is an adventurous expedition to the realm of complications. The result is an extraordinary watch in every respect, reflecting the genius of the ancestors of the Lange dynasty and linking it with the championship of the watchmakers of today.

A sound of the highest purity

Two carefully hand-tuned cymbals produce the subtle sound of minute repetition and self-pacing hours and quarter-hours. The GRAND COMPLICATION has a percussion, which shows the time as a great sounding (grande sonnerie) or small peal (petite sonnerie) independently. As a grande sonnerie it strikes every quarter of an hour at first the full hour on the lower tuned tone spring and then the quarter hour as a double stroke on both tone springs. The petite sonnerie offers the quarter-hours on both tone springs with one, two or three double strings. At the full hour, she beats the number of hours on the lower tuned sound.

The grande sonnerie is by no means one of the most demanding complications of precision watchmaking. Because it places extreme demands on the perfect interplay between artistic design, the highest material quality and the fingertip feeling of the watchmaker. "Free, no play", he has to fine-tune the moving parts so precisely that they produce a precise stop and a sound of the highest purity.

The striking mechanism is driven by one of a total of three spring houses. They are reared over the crown. Turning the crown clockwise biases the spring houses for the drive and the lightning seconds. In the opposite direction, the striking spring housing is mounted.

In addition, a minute repetition is given by pressing the flip-flop on the side by means of the two sound springs: the hours they strike with the lower-pitched tone, the quarter-hours as a double beat, and the minutes sound in the higher note. At seven o'clock, for example, seven lower notes, three double strings, and seven higher notes sound.

To exactly the fifth

The chronograph of the GRAND COMPLICATION is a chronograph monopoussoir with a rattrapante function and a flashing second (seconde foudroyante). This rare additional function allows you to read the measured time exactly to the fifth of a second. For this purpose, the hand of blued steel jumps around the center point in five steps per second while the chronograph is running on the lower auxiliary dial. The pointer thus accurately reflects the center frequency of 2.5 hertz.

At the center of the main handbook, the watch features a chronograph hand made of gold and a hand-blown steel to stop the time. You start running together with the flashing second as soon as you press the trigger between 1 and 2 o'clock. After every revolution of the center pointer, the minute counter advances at 12 o'clock.

If the left button is pressed between 10 and 11 o'clock, the toggle pointer will remain in blown steel, indicating the mean time, while the gold chronograph pointer continues to run unobserved. If you press the left button again, the cursor will pick up the chronograph pointer again and flash in sync with it. Pressing the right button stops all four hands of the chronograph and another action causes them to return to zero. The control of the two mechanisms takes place in the classical style precisely and safely via two column wheels, one each for the sequences of the chronograph or the rattrapante function.

A calendar for eternity

The mechanism of the eternal calendar is based on the Gregorian calendar. He takes into account not only the different monthly lengths within one year, but also the 29th February in leap year. Only 2100 the mechanism has to be corrected by one day. Then the Gregorian calendar uses the special rule that the leap year is omitted if the year is divisible by 100. The exact monthly lengths are coded by recesses in the so-called 48 wheel and are read mechanically by the date shift lever. The deeper the scan is, the shorter the current month.

Another special feature of the calendar is that it moves all displays (except the moon display) exactly at midnight. The calendar displays are at 3, 9 and 12 o'clock. The left-hand auxiliary handbook shows the date, the upper one the month in the four-year cycle, and the right the weekday. In the upper half of the display for the lightning second, the moon disk, made of solid gold, is the exact duration of the synodic orbital time of the Earth.

Tribute to a great tradition

The counterpart to the complex work of the GRAND COMPLICATION is a multi-part white enamel dial with Arabic numerals, Chemin-de-Fer-Minuterie, as well as the four characteristic symmetrical auxiliary dials. For each of the total of five sub-scale sheets, several lengthy workflows are required to achieve a complete overall score sheet. An escapement system with 18,000 half vibrations per hour operates inside the exclusive manual hoist. A special tribute to the Saxon watchmaking tradition founded by Ferdinand A. Lange is the Glashütter Ankergang, which goes back to one of his early inventions. Anchor and anchor wheel are made of hardened 18 karat gold. The anchor is designed to be perfectly balanced. A slight curvature of the concealed pallets prevents adhesion between the armature wheel and the pallets. The perfect execution of these delicate design features helps to further increase the precision of the watch. The oscillation system is equipped with a spiral in its own house. The drive has a 30-hour drive autonomy.

All parts of the complex handrail are manufactured according to the highest long quality criteria and elaborately finished by hand. Lange's master clockmakers have pushed the cost of decorating to the extreme in some places: all chronograph levers have been provided with a black polish. The exclusive collector's item in the 50 mm measuring rose gold case is limited to six copies. Thus the GRAND COMPLICATION is not only a technically perfect masterpiece but also a rare watchmaking work of art.

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