In this year’s Best of the Best, we continue to honour the brands and people who have continued to create covetable products, even in the midst of a global pandemic. Here, we have A Lange & Söhne win the best in design
At this German house, the aesthetic DNA has always been about ultra-refined sophistication with serious watchmaking expertise under the hood. So it may come as a surprise to A Lange & Söhne fans that the Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar is the first new model in which the complication comes without other high-end functions since the Langematik Perpetual Calendar, released in 2001.
Although additions to models in the last two decades were minute in appearance – like a small retrograde power reserve in a circular aperture at six o’clock in the hours and minutes subdial or tourbillons that were not even visible on the dial side – the latest edition returns to an even more sober approach by eliminating these flourishes. The moonphase aperture displays its 18-carat-gold sphere on the top rather than the bottom of the subdial, similar to the Lange 1 Moon Phase, except this time the function has been flipped to appear on the left-hand side of the dial. These are incredibly Teutonic subtleties, but when combined with a striking 18-carat pink-gold dial set in an 18-carat white-gold case accented by the pop of azure blue on the moonphase, it allows for maximum impact while delivering minimum fuss. Consider it a purist’s paradise.
