The A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Time Zone ref. 116.032 is by far one of the nicest luxury world timers in the industry. This exceptional timepiece from Saxony simultaneously indicates the home time as well as 24 different time zones across the world in a subsidiary hour/minute indicator equipped with night and day indicator. A peripheral city ring makes it possible to set the different time zones with the push of a button conveniently located on the case band. Fitted with an elegant highly polished 18K rose gold case —also available in platinum, 18K yellow gold or 18K white gold— measuring 41.9 mm in diameter and 11 mm in thickness, the A. Lange & Söhne Time Zone is understated, functional and extremely beautiful.
Fitted with a solid silver dial, the watch features a home time subdial at 9 o'clock; second time zone with city ring in a separate subdial at 5 o'clock; a separate day/night indicator for the home and the time zones indicated by a small circle with a half moon concentric ring and a small triangle-shaped hand; subsidiary seconds with stop seconds at 6 o'clock on the home time subdial; Up/Down power-reserve indicator at 3 o'clock and the legendary oversized double date indicator at 1 o'clock. To ensure proper readability from every angle, its sapphire crystal is properly treated with its traditional anti-reflective coating on both sides with its slightly blueish tint.
Equipped with a beautiful Lange marked winding crown and two conveniently located push-pieces on the case band on the left side of the watch —one to adjust the date and the other for the second time zone—, this fascinating world timer is without a doubt one of the best five world timers in the world.
Powered by the manual wound Lange in-house calibre L031.1 the watch delivers a pretty decent power reserve of at least 72 hours. Composed of 417 parts, 54 jewels —4 in screwed gold chatons—, the wheel train that drives the zone-time mechanism is visibly arranged above the three-quarter plate made of untreated German silver. Hidden beneath it is the 67-part time zone and city ring setting and correction mechanism as well as an ingenious adjustment device which allows the hour hand and the day/night indicator for zone time to be blocked. Consequently, home time and zone time are easily resynchronized if needed. Traditionally, the balance is carried by a hand-engraved cock. As one of very few A. Lange & Söhne models, the Lange 1 Time Zone features a second hand-engraved cock. This so-called intermediate wheel cock carries a wheel that connects the smaller intermediate center wheels for both time dials. The movement beats at a frequency of 21,600 vph.
The round out its elegance, the watch is fitted with a beautiful hand-stitched brown alligator strap with folding clasp with the traditional big Lange engraving on the buckle. As it is expected on A. Lange & Söhne timepieces or watches of this caliber, the finish on the watch is just out of this world.
On the wrist, as expected from a watch like this, the wrist presence is spectacular and up to par with its price tag. The watch wears true to its size with exceptional elegance and unexpectedly low on the wrist due to its thickness. Next time you are on your way to Abu Dhabi for that meeting with your UAE investors, make sure you keep track of multiple time zones with this beauty on your wrist. For the price, it really doesn't get much better than this when it comes to world timers of this caliber.
Sticker Price $49,400 USD. For more info on A. Lange & Söhne click here.
