A. Lange & Söhne Doubles Down on New Releases for the UK’s Premiere Classic Car Show

Watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne set the tone for this season’s timepiece reveals for its classic car show partnerships with an unexpected limited-edition Honeygold execution of the rarely seen rectangular-case Cabaret Tourbillon at the stylish Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy at the end of May.

For its follow-up reveal at the regal Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace, which kicked off today, the maker has traded geometric rarity for a two-fer: a more naturally automotive-aligned timepiece canvas and a superb example of classic heritage-inspired beauty.

Given its timing capabilities, a chronograph is perhaps the most expected genre of watch design for motoring. However, since Lange began debuting impressive novelties in concert with important concours last year, we haven’t yet seen a chronograph among them.

The envelope-pushing Triple Split chronograph and the pocket-watch-inspired 1815 Up/Down special-edition timepieces revealed for the UK concours strike a perfect one-two punch of automotive alignment and classic car-evoking period craftsmanship and style.

Timing Is Everything, Times Three

When it was first introduced in 2018, the A. Lange & Söhne Triple Split instantly set a new, very high bar for the world of modern chronography. As the only split-seconds chronograph timepiece to accurately measure intermediate, comparative, and overall timings with an aggregate duration of up to 12 hours, not only does the flyback seconds counter provide for multiple rattrapante timings, but those functions are extended to the hands of the minute and hour counters as well.

That means, for example, you could record multiple intermediate times of arriving at waypoints in a car rally, say, while also expertly timing an entire drive time that accounts for drive breaks and standing times. The Triple Split brings the intermediate and comparative time mechanical storage of a traditional split-seconds chronograph, which works for timings up to 60 seconds, to the minute and hour timing functions, potentially enabling a day’s worth of concurrent event calculation.

The sculpted pusher at 2 o’clock starts the show with blued rattrapante hands lying under the rhodium hands. The pusher at 10 o’clock freezes the intermediate time across the main dial’s seconds gauge, the small 12-hour sub-dial at noon, and the jumping 30-minute tallier at 4 o’clock with the blued hands, while the rhodium hands continue the timing. A push at 10 o’clock again “catches up” the static blued hands to the running chronograph hands, with the pusher at 4 o’clock covering the flyback and reset functions.

Look Ma, Ten Hands

If that all sounded a bit confusing, that’s because, depending on how fully you’re taking advantage of its chronographic capabilities, the new Triple Split’s dial may have as many as 10 hands of varying sizes, materials, and motions on display!

Still, thanks to the brand’s painstaking design and craftsmanship decisions, the Triple Split wears less technical and more understated and elegant. This is particularly true of this 43.2mm special edition for the Hampton Court Palace show.

Limited to 100 pieces in 950 Platinum with a 925 silver, rhodium-toned dial and darker grey running on the sub-dials at 8 and 4 o’clock, this new Triple Split masters the art of not only “stealth wealth,” but also “stealth capability.” Some folks might wonder about the added rattrapante pusher at 10 o’clock, but most won’t notice anything other than that it’s an exquisite chronograph, with restrained lume on the hour and minute hands, on a gorgeous brown alligator leather strap.

But the real star of this show is the complex, hand-wound L132.1 manufacture calibre that houses the uncanny triple-rattrapante system, which is on display via the sapphire caseback. The dance is made even more alluring, of course, by A. Lange & Söhne’s unmatched finishing work, as the movement’s 567 components received straight-graining, beveled circumferential chamfering, chamfered polishing, embellished German silver chaton bridge screws, and Glashütte ribbing, to name just a few of the finishing techniques employed.

A Tiger in Your Tank

Also unveiled today at Hampton Court, the 1815 Up/Down rearranges some iconic A. Lange & Söhne signature details into a decidedly pocket-watch-inspired package and makes no bones about taking the maison’s unique Auf-to-Ab power reserve display and putting it center-stage (well, large and at 8 o’clock), hence the Up/Down moniker.

Available in two special-edition executions with 750 pink or white gold 37.5mm cases (300 editions of each), this timepiece embodies the estimable and unique traditions of Saxon watchmaking that have always sought to combine precision, functionality, and elegance.

In this case, it is not missed that there is an automotive association with Lange’s distinctive 72-hour power reserve indicator; it’s your gas tank, and you don’t want to run it to empty. Generally, a power reserve rides along with additional functions on a watch dial, but paired with the clean subsidiary seconds sub-dial at 4 o’clock, it finds its long-overdue spotlight on the 1815 Up/Down.