Unpacking Alloys: The Allure of A. Lange & Söhne’s Honeygold

Material innovation has been at the forefront of watchmaking in recent years. One of the biggest breakthroughs came with the use of silicon for the escapement, pioneered by Ulysse Nardin in 2001 to help eliminate lubrication, improve precision, reduce weight, and resist magnetism.

Whether inside the beating heart of the movement or on the case or strap, material innovation in watchmaking is often spurred by something practical, making a timepiece more aerodynamic, efficient, or durable. High-performance materials such as ceramic, carbon fiber, and other proprietary composites have revolutionized sport and tool watches, but what does material innovation mean for more classic brands using precious metals?

We have also seen an uptick in brands creating their own proprietary metal alloys from heavy hitters like Rolex and Audemars Piguet to Omega, IWC, and Hublot. Here, material innovation seems to toe the line between practical and aesthetic. Perhaps a certain proprietary metal alloy is more robust, but it also works as a new design element for a brand to create a signature style all its own.

We recently sat down with A. Lange & Söhne’s Director of Product Development, Tony de Haas, to help us unpack the creation of the brand’s own proprietary metal alloy, Honeygold.

The first Honeygold models debuted in A. Lange & Söhne’s catalog in 2010 in celebration of the brand’s 165^th anniversary, but the development of the alloy that would become Honeygold started a few years prior.

“We had thought about designing a luxury sports watch, but we were only creating watches in precious metals,” de Haas explained during our interview. “We knew that gold was not right for a sports watch – it is too soft – so we wrote a brief of what we would need,” he continued. “It must be 18-karat gold, but it needs to be harder – and we took this to an expert in creating alloys.”
 

They soon returned with a metal that met the criteria with a beautiful shade that fell somewhere between white and pink gold. “The first alloy they brought us was a nightmare,” de Haas confessed. “It was beautiful, but it was impossible to machine – it was breaking, cracking – we knew this would not only compromise the integrity of our watches but also drive up the price.”

“See, people must understand that the high cost of platinum watches, for example, is not just about the cost of the metal, it is about the difficulty to machine it. So, we shared this feedback, and the team went back to work,” he clarified. A few more tweaks to the composition improved the structure and retained the gorgeous, honey-like color. Thus, Honeygold was born!
 

However, this new gold alloy did not come to life in the sports watch as planned, at least not at first. Instead, the metal was used to celebrate the brand’s 165^th anniversary and to honor its founder, Ferdinand Adolph Lange, across three core collections: the Lange 1, the 1815 Moonphase, and the Tourbograph “Pour Le Merite.”

“We knew we would still design a sports watch and use Honeygold one day, but we did not want to limit this material to that product family,” described de Haas. “The fact that we instead introduced it in these anniversary editions fits the philosophy of F.A. Lange perfectly,” he continued. “Our design codes are not just aesthetic – they are all based on utility.”
 

This got me thinking, and de Haas was right. Take, for instance, one of A. Lange & Söhne’s most instantly recognizable trademarks: the outsized date. While it has become one of the brand’s quintessential design elements, it was born out of a desire to improve legibility and functionality.

A. Lange & Söhne finally debuted its first sports watch, the Odysseus, in 2019, but it was not in Honeygold – it was stainless steel. “Yes, we developed a gold alloy for a sports watch, and we did not make that watch in Honeygold for 15 years!” laughed de Haas.

You will remember well that the Odysseus Honeygold came just last year in 2025, marking the first time the alloy was used outside the case, but this time, on the bracelet as well. As you might guess, handling the intricate parts that make up the five-link integrated design presented new challenges for the machining process.
 

“Even after we got the perfect composition for Honeygold, we still extensively test every batch before we begin machining parts,” confirmed de Haas. “This was particularly important for the Honeygold bracelet with all the small components under so much pressure.”

This brought me to the most important question I wanted to ask de Haas: Do proprietary metals like Honeygold have staying power, or will they mark a particular era of watchmaking that will come and go?
 

“We have what I like to call a long way of thinking. Of course, we run a business, so we have to have a certain balance with commercial appeal, but we are not interested in fads or trends,” de Haas concluded. “We feel we have a great responsibility for our products – we need an A. Lange & Söhne timepiece from 2026 to also be working 200 years from now, so it is just organic that we approach every part of watchmaking with this in mind, including the creation of Honeygold.”

For more information about the brand and its offerings, check out the A. Lange & Söhne website.