The Big One Is Here: The A. Lange & Söhne Triple Split

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Nov 5, 2020
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Watchfinder & Co. presents:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, you are about to witness the peak of this channel. On loan direct from the brand itself, a one-off opportunity, I present to you the one and only, the incredible, the unmatched A. Lange & Söhne Triple Split. Let’s begin.

Featured Watches:
A. Lange & Söhne Triple Split 424.038

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TRIPLE SPLIT White gold with dial in grey/argenté​

Reference: 424.038

This model was introduced in 2018. The dial is crafted from solid silver and graced with solid-gold appliques and hour markers. The hands are made of rhodiumed gold and blued steel. The hour and minute hands as well as the hour markers at 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock are luminous.
Price: 145.100 €**Recommended retail price in Germany including VAT. Non-binding quotation, prices subject to change.

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White Gold

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White gold is produced by admixing various alloy components to stabilise the material and make it appealing for use in jewellery manufacturing and watchmaking. Palladium plays a key role in this since a relatively low amount of, say, 150 parts is sufficient to transform the gold’s yellow colour into the silvery white to which this alloy owes its name. At Lange, we use white gold with a purity of 18 carats (750 ppt).

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Wound or unwound The UP/DOWN power-reserve indicator​

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Linked with the name A. Lange & Söhne, the UP/DOWN display has a long-standing tradition. In 1879, Lange received Imperial Patent No. 9349 for the development of this indication, which was implemented in historic pocket watches and marine chronometers. The subject was a “device in pocket watches for recognising whether the watch is wound or unwound and for indicating how much time remains before it reaches the totally unwound state.” This was the official moment of birth of Lange’s characteristic UP/DOWN power-reserve indicator.

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UP/DOWN​


The power-reserve indicator was useful especially for precision watches that were relied on for navigational purposes and other scientific applications. It indicates the state of wind and reminds the owner to rewind the watch before it stops running. In the display, the “AUF” (UP) denotes the fully wound and “AB” (DOWN) the fully unwound state of the mainspring. It is a traditional hallmark of A. Lange & Söhne watches.


The 1815 UP/DOWN features a special mechanical implementation of the display. It is no longer a modular addition to an existing movement but instead is integrated directly into the confined space of the movement with a specially designed planetary gearing. The result is a thinner silhouette and more elegant proportions. The compact ensemble is based on a 1940 patent granted to Otto Lange, a grandson of the manufactory’s founder.
The dial of the 1815 UP/DOWN in pink gold

The 1815 UP/DOWN in pink gold with the characteristic Lange UP/DOWN power-reserve indicator. It is located on the left-hand subsidiary dial.

Stopping without standing still Chronograph and rattrapante mechanism​

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There are always special moments in life that make people wish they could freeze time and prolong experiences of joy and elation for just a while longer. Although it is not possible to stop time and preserve such moments for eternity, Lange chronographs can measure the duration of such events and others very accurately.

Our chronographs and their movements that were developed in-house have been icons of the manufactory since 1999. The elaborate constructions are based on the column wheel principle. Their column wheels control basic functions: start, stop and reset. Depending on the oscillator, events can be measured with an accuracy of one-fifth or one-sixth of a second and, thanks to the minute counter, can last as long as 30 minutes.

Applications of the chronograph function​


Chronographs can be used in many different ways. Apart from simply stopping times, they can perform additive time measurements, for instance, by sequencing several laps. For this purpose, the chronograph hands are not reset after stopping, but instead restarted.

The outermost scale of a chronograph covers further applications. Some models feature tachometer scales. They are used to determine an average speed over a distance of one kilometre. If the watch has a pulsometer scale, it can measure a person’s heart rate.
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The 1815 CHRONOGRAPH
features a scale for heart rate measurements

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The peripheral tachymeter scale of the DATOGRAPH
UP/DOWN

An additional hand for the rattrapante function​


“Rattrapante” is a French term that denotes the split-seconds hand of a chronograph. This additional seconds hand can be stopped independently of the chronograph hand and resynchronised with it at will.

Initially, both hands are directly superposed so that only the rattrapante hand is visible. When a measurement is started, both hands begin to run together and the chrono sweep-seconds hand remains concealed. It only becomes visible when measurement of the first event is stopped. At this point, the rattrapante hand stops while the chronograph hand continues to measure the elapsed time. It, too, stands still when measurement of the second event is stopped. This allows for the comparison of two time measurements with the same start time, such as the lap durations of two runners.
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Chrono sweep-seconds hand and rattrapante hand of the 1815 RATTRAPANTE PERPETUAL CALENDAR
A further function is available if the chrono sweep-seconds hand is not stopped: Pressing a button realigns the stopped rattrapante hand with the chrono sweep-seconds hand; both hands will then run together until the rattrapante hand is stopped anew. It is a process that can be repeated any number of times. This makes it possible to measure one aggregate time and several lap times – for instance, the individual lap times of a horse in a race and its total time.

By cleverly combining the functions of the chronograph and rattrapante mechanism, many comparative measurements can be performed relative to a reference time. A rattrapante chronograph can even measure minima and maxima, such as the fastest or slowest of many laps.
 
Very handsome, and impressive! A little outside my financial radius at 145K. however. :wink: Thanks Mike.:hat:
 
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