Twenty-five years after the launch of the Datograph, A. Lange & Söhne introduces the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Honey “Lumen”, which combines the brand’s Honeygold® and “Lumen” in a limited edition of fifty pieces.

This new model combines a flyback chronograph with a jumping minute counter, a perpetual calendar (with the classic Lange outsized date), day/ night indicator, moon phase, and tourbillon with a stop-seconds mechanism in a 41.5 mm sized Honeygold® case (14.6 mm thick). It is the sixth in the “Lumen” limited edition series and is the second “Lumen” model to use their proprietary metal, following the Zeitwerk Honeygold “Lumen” (2021).

Let’s first take a look at the functions and features of the complications.

The small seconds, day of the week and day/ night indicator are on a sub dial on the left-hand side of the dial. The jumping minute counter for the chronograph function, month and leap year indication are on a sub dial on the right. The moon phase display is at 6 o’clock and only needs a correction after 122.6 years. The perpetual calendar has instantaneously changing displays.

To operate/ correct the functions, there is a crown for winding the watch and setting the time, and two buttons on either side of it to operate the chronograph. The rapid-correction button at 10 o’clock can be used to simultaneously advance all displays by one day. There are three correctors on the side of the case to separately adjust the moon-phase display, the day of the week, the month and the leap year.

The stop-seconds mechanism (activated by pulling out the crown) stops the tourbillon and allows for the setting of the watch to one-second accuracy.

The dial is coated sapphire crystal to show off the “Lumen” effect. The hour and minute hands, which are in Honeygold®, are lumed. The day of the week and month hands are also Honeygold® The minute counter and small seconds hands are 18kt gold with black-rhodium treatment. The central chronograph seconds hand is in stainless steel, and lumed. The sub dials themselves are also luminous, as is the outsized date, whose disc is coated with a luminous compound and printed with black numerals.

Powering this year’s Big Watch is Lange’s manually-wound Calibre L952.4 with a column wheel chronograph. Consisting of 684 parts, it beats at 1800 VPH and has a power reserve of fifty hours. As you would have expected, the plates and bridges are made of untreated German silver.

Coming on a dark brown alligator strap with a deployant in Honeygold® and 18-carat white gold, the A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Honeygold “Lumen” is limited to fifty pieces, with the edition number engraved on the watch.

All the “Lumen” pieces are fun to look at and play around with, it’s impossible not to like a lot of lume, and although this has heft, it’s not so bulky as to feel unwearable. But in combining a perpetual calendar with a flyback chronograph with the “Lumen” feature, this is one of those ‘if you have to ask for the price’ watches – it’s EUR 620,000.

Categories: A. Lange & Söhne, chronograph, German watches, Limited Editions, Watch Profile, watches, Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024

Tags: Perpetual calendar