Weekly Watch Photo – A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Handwerkskunst

Some weeks ago A. Lange & Söhne unveiled what in my eyes is the most beautiful timepiece in the current collection. It’s a special limited edition of the Zeitwerk ‘Handwerkskunst’.

In my opinion the Lange Zeitwerk, that was released late 2009, is one of the most desirable timepieces available on the market today.  This new version with a hand frosted black-rhodium white gold dial, somehow perfected the looks of the Zeitwerk even more.

The white gold dial has been black rhodium finished, something rare as usually rhodium finish is used to make metals (mostly white gold) look more shiny and white. The frosting is also something very rare and can only be found on a hand-full of watches. I know Peter Speake-Marin did several commissioned pieces with a hand-frosted dial, Kari Voutilainen’s Minute Repeater 10 (a unique piece) and this Observatoire feature hand-frosted finishing on bridges and the Greubel Forsey GMT features hand-frosted bridges and plates.

The contrast between the hand-frosted black-rhodium white gold dial and the (also) rhodium finished German silver looks just stunning. While German silver (an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc) is normally used for bridges of just a few real high-end watches, it’s a remakrable choice of A. Lange & Söhne to use it on the dial for what they call the ‘timebridge’. It’s decorated with a very nice linear graining.

The time bridge ‘holds’ all time indications: the large white numerals of the hour and minute displays as well as the grey seconds dial in solid silver. The platinum case of the Zeitwerk has the lovely finished that we know from Lange & Söhne, with polished bezel, lugs and case back, while the mid case features a very nice linear brush finishing.

The Lange Zeitwerk Handwerkskunst is limited to 30 pieces and will only be available in A. Lange & Söhne boutiques around the world. For more info, please check the A. Lange & Söhne website.

This article is written by Frank Geelen,e xecutive editor for Monochrome-Watches.