Magnificent dress watches that glow with stateliness and mechanical sophistication
If, like us, you are partial to marking the start of the Lunar New Year by expressing propitiousness, there is perhaps no better way to do so than with a touch of gold in your getup. You’d have to do it tastefully, of course. German marque A. Lange & Söhne, though culturally distant from Chinese festivities, has just the right watches to get the job done.
The 1815 Annual Calendar in 40mm pink gold, for one, will help order your days with quiet refinement. The precious metal exudes a soft radiance, endowing the watch elegance that belies its mechanical utility.
The watch’s manually wound calibre L051.3 houses an intelligent calendar mechanism that automatically computes the months with 30 and 31 days. This means that the wearer only needs to adjust the calendar display once a year, on the last day of February to the first day of March. Just as mind-blowing, the moon phase display is accurate to an astounding 122.6 years, practically requiring no adjustment in one’s lifetime.
While on the subject of moon phases, the Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase in yellow gold is another contender for the festive season and beyond. A horological ode to the stars, Lange artfully integrates the celestial complication with possibly its most iconic dial design. Here, the complication that charts the waxing and waning of the moon—powered by a hand-wound movement and also accurate to 122.6 years—is depicted by a gold disc with laser-cut stars, nestled within the Lange 1’s off-centred time display.
Though devoid of additional features seen in the previous models, our third recommendation, is a coveted classic that stands the test of time. The famous Lange 1, recognised by its off-centred time displays and outsize date indicators, is a collectors’ favourite since the original debuted in 1994, marking the brand’s relaunch.
Inspired by the famous Five-Minute Clock in the Dresden Semper Opera, and designed in accordance with the golden ratio—a mathematical formula used by artists, sculptors, and architects to ensure perfectly balanced geometry and proportions—the Lange 1 is a bona fide modern-day watch icon. Backed by a high-performance hand-wound movement with 72-hour power reserve, the version to strap on—for now, at least—is the pink gold model, radiating warm and resplendence to start the Lunar New Year on the right note.
