A dual time or a GMT watch is a must for frequent travellers and for people who like to keep tabs on different time zones. The recent times have been difficult especially for those who are used to travelling be it for work or fun. With international travel still in the early stages of resuming in full blast and restrictions still imposed in most countries, travelling is still out of question. That being said, things will get better and it is always good to be prepared. A. Lange & Sohne recently launched its all-new Lange 1 Time Zone with the brand new Calibre L 141.1.
The Lange 1 Collection – A Travellers’ Companion
The Lange 1 was indeed a very special timepiece. When it was first launched in 1994, it had a mission to resurrect the image of A. Lange & Sohne, and that it did. Due to features such as the asymmetric dial and the distinct oversized date display, the Lange 1 has become the most recognisable timepiece in the brand catalogue, if not the face of the brand. Right now, the Lange 1 collection has watches ranging from classic three-hand references to highly complicated tourbillon perpetual calendars.
The watch we are about to dive into is the Lange 1 Time Zone which made its debut in 2005. A. Lange & Sohne celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Lange 1 collection last year with a limited edition watch model of the Time Zone reference too.
The Lange 1 Time Zone – What’s So Special About It?
On technical terms, GMT watches or dual time zone watches allow users to keep a track of time from different time zones. They allow users to glance at home time zones and local time zones in one go. Generally, GMT timepieces are dependent on an additional central hand that indicates towards a 24-hour scale. Usually, these references also include a day and night indicator.
The New Lange 1 Time Zone from A. Lange & Sohne puts to use the signature Lange 1 design language with its asymmetric dials. The time dual time zone function in the watch is a little different from the rest, though. The watch has two separate dials for each time zone. The local time can be reviewed via the larger sub-dial with applied golden Roman numerals whilst the home-time can be reviewed via the smaller sub-dial with Arabic numerals. Although, there is still the question of day and night. How would you know which is which? Keep reading.
Getting Into The Details
The watch has a case diameter of 41.9 mm and a height of 10.9 mm. These numbers are decent considering today’s standards but somehow they suit the Lange 1 Time Zone’s design language just perfectly. These are also the same dimensions as the original Lange 1. The watch will be made available in white gold, rose gold, and a limited edition of yellow gold. The update is mostly on the mechanical front with minute tweaks on the aesthetics and design front.
The first thing that will come to the notice of learned watch enthusiasts is the 24-hour display. This feature was implemented into the original Time Zone via a simpler method. Two small sub-dials of home time and time zone were simply nestled. This way worked for the brand and caused no hassle whatsoever. However, for the sake of achieving better clarity in design and functionality, the watchmaker resorted to the newer way. Both the main dials have a rotating disk with a semi-circular blue marking. The blue area denotes night time and the non-blue are denotes day time. In addition to this, there is a pusher at 8 o’clock that can be used to change the ‘city rings’. Another pusher is at the 10 o’clock mark and that can be used to manipulate the ‘big’ date display.
The mechanism used in the pusher at 8 o’clock is especially complex as it has to change the city ring, the time-zone hour hand, and lastly, the day-night disk, all simultaneously. The above-mentioned system takes about 67 components to work in perfect sync.
What’s New?
Anthony de Haas, A. Lange & Sohne’s Director Of Product Development stated that the reason for a day-night indicator in the larger of the two dials – which is basically the home time dial is because of the fact that it is now possible to set the hour hand independent of the minute hand in the main time-zone dial. This can simply be accomplished by pulling out the crown to the second stage and pressing the pusher at 8 o’clock at the same time to move the hour hand in the time-zone dial.
What usually happens, in this case, is that the hour hands are synchronized with the minute hands. However, this technique decouples the hour hands and lets the user use the larger sub-dials for local time whilst the smaller sub-dial can be used for home time. This is where the day-night indicator comes to play. If there is no indication in the home time dial or the larger dial, there is no way of knowing the details of the time being displayed. Be it local time or be it the accuracy of the big date.
The Movement
There is one final touch that A. Lange & Sohne has added to this watch and that is the Day Light Savings indicator. The time zone dial in the watch performs its job as usual. However, it does have a new feature that indicates if the Day Light Savings is turned on or off for a particular city. The Day Light Savings indication can be controlled by the city dial that makes it change its colour to red or white as per the city. Red indicates that the Day Light Savings is turned on and white indicates that it is turned off.
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