Hitting the Right Notes

At its latest novelty presentation in Bangkok, A. Lange & Sohne launched a technically impressive timepiece - in its most intriguing case material.

- LYNETTE KOH

Over the years, several watchmaking experts from high-horology companies have dazzled us with complex mechanisms and technical wizardry. Only one, however, has impressed us by playing the drums for a band’s live performance of Al Green’s "Let’s Stay Together", followed by a three-minute percussion solo.

At A. Lange & Sohne’s October launch event in Bangkok, Anthony de Haas, the brand’s director of product development since 2004, demonstrated the musical chops we had hitherto only read about. It was a fitting performance to mark the introduction of the brand’s latest release, the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater Honeygold.

Even in the rarefied world of minute repeaters — which are mechanical watches that chime the time — the Zeitwerk Minute Repeater stands alone. It is the only mechanical wristwatch that combines a jumping numerals display with a decimal minute repeater, which sounds the hours, ten-minute intervals, and minutes. Conventional minute repeaters sound the hours, quarters and minutes.

A UNIQUE MATERIAL