This Replica A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar may look familiar to some of you but it is, in fact, totally new. You’d be forgiven for mistaking it for the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar, which is so Lange that it hides the tourbillon and results in a nearly identical look at a passing glance. Looks can be deceiving, though, and for Watches & Wonders 2021, we see the first Lange 1 that is purely a Perpetual Calendar with an all-new movement.
The A Lange Sohne Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar Replica is being debuted in two variants. The first of these is a standard production (well, for Lange) model in a pink-gold case with a gray/silver dial. The second is a 150-piece limited edition that, once again, immediately causes me to have a Tex Avery reaction. Done in a white-gold case with a solid pink-gold dial, it is an absolute vision, and I am already deeply envious of the 150 people who will own one of these. The last time we saw this white-gold case with pink-gold dial combo was the equally beautiful Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon from 2019.
The new automatic calibre L021.3 perpetual calendar movement is a modified version of the L021.1 Lange 1 Daymatic calibre. This is its first strictly perpetual calendar movement (meaning no tourbillon perpetual calendars) since the Langematik Perpetual was released 20 years ago. The brand did release a honey-gold version of the Langematik Perpetual back in 2019 that used the older movement.
Like its Lange siblings, this newest calibre L021.3 is decorated and finished by hand with German silver on the plates and bridges. The L021.3 is composed of 621 parts and boasts a unidirectional 21k gold rotor with a platinum centrifugal mass. It has an operating frequency of 21,600 vph and has a 50-hour power reserve. And while every brand may not consider moonphase and day/night indicator to be inherent to a perpetual calendar, Lange does.
The moonphase display has a day/night indicator and is made of two discs. The first is the solid gold celestial disc done in a blue gradation, and the second is the moon disc done in either white or pink gold. The celestial disc completes a rotation every 24 hours, while the moon disc completes its synodic orbit in 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and three seconds. It is accurate to 122.6 years before a day’s correction is needed.
The L021.3 measures 35.8mm-wide and 8.8mm-thick, which allows for the Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar case to be pretty ideally sized at 41.9mm-wide and 12.1mm-thick. That is pretty damn wearable for a perpetual calendar.
Now, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that this Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar is something like a third of the price of the Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar I mentioned at the top of this article. The bad news is that this still means a six-figure price. The A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Perpetual Calendar