Leading watches
A.
Lange & Söhne
Patek
Philippe
Jaeger-LeCoultre
Audemars
Piguet
Vacheron
Constantine
A.
Lange & Söhne has always defined superior
craftsmanship in all their watches from the inside to the outside. They are a
German watch maker with extremely high horological standards in their watch
complexes and movements.
Under their flagship, there are many
superb and elegant timepieces that have attracted various collectors.
The company was founded in 1845 by
Ferdinand Adolph Lange. They were making good watches in Saxony region of
Germany until World War II when their workshops were largely destroyed.
Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989, Walter Lange, the fourth generation family, decided to revive their
family tradition and brand. They restarted their business in 1990 in the city
of Glashütte. 1
Their new generation of A. Lange &
Söhne watches was created in 1994 with their very own movements. There was no
turning back from then onwards and their business started to flourish.
Their mens watches are known to be
exquisite and valuable among many collectors around the world. This boils down
to the creation of its own movement and its focus on self assembly in Glashütte
workshops.
Another important reason for their high
value is because they produce only in 18-karat gold or platinum. And they
produce limited quantities of a few thousand a year of these mechanical mens
watches to make it into important collectible items.
Their intial models in their modern
collection were Lange 1,
Saxonia, Arkade and Tourbillon pour le Mérite. There were only small amounts of
productions for these pieces that comes only in a few hundreds.
A. Lange & Söhne is also known for
its patented Lange oversized dates in all their mens watches. This further
creates value for the company’s brand and design work.
Of great significance would be A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1 Moonphase
watch. This is a unique moonphase not found in other watches.
Their mechanical movement allows the
moonphases to depict exactly like the moon time by having it in constant
motion, whereas moonphases in other watches usually click into position after
passing certain segment of time.
The accuracy of its moonphase is also
unbelievable. It is just 0.02 percent deviation from the actual moon’s orbit.
The Lange 1 Moonphase comes in 18-karat yellow, pink gold or in platinum with
398 individual parts within.
Other great Lange collection of mens
watches:
A. Lange & Söhne is also known for
its patented Lange oversized dates in all their mens watches. This further
creates value for the company’s brand and design work.
In 1997, the Langematik was launched.
These range of watches carries the Sax-O-Mat movement. The Cabaret was also
introduced within that year. Its unique rectangular shape created much
originality among other mens watches.
The ranges of Langematik:
To celebrate the turn of the century,
in 2001, the company showcased their new range the 1815
and the 1815 Power Reserve.
Patek
Philippe is the creation of two men that
transformed the world of watchmaking. The meeting between Antoine Norbert de
Patek and Jean Adrien Philippe occurred in 1844 and they began their
partnership in 1845 as Patek & Co. before changing their current name in
1851.
Some of their track records are:
·
1863:
Innovation of free mainspring that led to the invention of the automatic watch
·
1868:
Created the world’s first wristwatch
·
1881:
Patent for their regulating system by an eccentric cam
·
1889:
Patent for their perpetual calendar system with a self-regulating calendar
·
1902:
Patent for their split-second chronograph
·
1932:
Charles and Jean Stern acquired Patek Philippe
·
1933:
Henry Graves, Jr purchased the Graves watch for $11,750. It resold in 1999 for
$11 million
·
1956:
Created first battery-operated watch for industrial use
·
1986:
Patent for its secular perpetual calendar with retrograde indicator with
accuracy for 400 years
·
1989:
The auctioned Caliber 89, a masterpiece with 1,728 components and 35
horological functions that took 9 years to build, went for $3.2million
·
1996:
Patent for its annual calendar
·
1996:
Calatrava, minute-repeater + perpetual calendar + moonphase, created in 1939
auctioned for $1.3 million compared to its 1981 auction at $115,000
·
2000:
Star Caliber 2000, pocket watch with 21 complications and 6 patented components
With its long history of outstanding
contribution and revolutions (more than 60 patents under their flagship) toward
the world of watchmaking, there is no doubt for the strong following among
collectors for its timepieces. In 2001, they created a unique and very
complicated wristwatch known as Sky Moon Tourbillon
(ref. 5002).
The rarity of this watch is its display of its minute repeater, perpetual
calendar (including moonphase), retrograde date using central hands. At its
rear dial shows representation of the sidereal hour and the visible sky part
(based on the sky visible from any town).
It has white central hands to indicate
the sidereal hour which is the time referred to the passage of the same
meridian with respect to a certain star.
Another outstanding creation was in 2002 for its Sky
Moon watch ref. 5102. It reflects the exact
configuration of the night sky complete with movements of the stars, position
of the moon, and the moonphases within the lunar cycle.
It took Patek Philippe 2 years to
create this outstanding achievement that incorporated two of its greatest
developments from Star Caliber 2000 and Sky Moon Tourbillon. It uses a system
of different layered discs to run the lunar day, lunar cycle, and sidereal day
where each rotates in different durations and also differ from the solar time.
Patek Philippe continues to create
another first time in watchmaking history, 10 days Tourbillon.
It spent 3 years in research and development to achieve 10 days of power
reserve and a manual-wind tourbillon with COSC-certified chronometer.
It uses a 2 mainspring barrel and a
tourbillon escapement in rectangular movement. The transparent caseback reveals
the intrinsic tourbillon bridge and tourbillon cage what wraps the Gyromax
balance wheel. The other 10 days power reserve is Ref. 5100.
With a strong and focused dedication to
creating the finest and most luxurious watches, Audemars Piguet is undeniably one of the most well-known watch
makers to date. It was founded in 1875 by Jules Audemars and Edward Piguet
during their early twenties.
Their craftsmanship and eye for details
has allowed them to create in 1882 the Grande Complication watch. This is a
minute repeater, perpetual calendar, moonphase, and chronograph. 1889, a newer
Grande Complication was produced with similar functions as well as a split-second
chronograph.
Their innovative characters made them
moving the watch industry literally with many “first” creations. Examples are:
·
In 1915, they made the smallest minute-repeater
movement
·
1925, the slimmest pocket watch
·
1945, the slimmest manual winding
wristwatch
·
1967, the slimmest automatic movement
·
1972, the famous collectible Royal Oak
·
1992, the Triple Complication
wristwatch
·
1994, Grande Sonnerie using 410
mechanical pieces to create one of the most complicated known movement
·
1999, the Tourbillon Minute Repeater
Split Second Chronograph Jules Audemars watch
·
In 2000, an extremely complex
masterpiece, the Jules Audemars Equation of Time
with tourbillon escapement wristwatch was made. In the same year, the Edward
Piguet Minute Repeater with chimes and a limited edition of 20 platinum pieces
was created
·
2001, another two masterpieces which
are first of its kind, the Edward Piguet Tourbillon with power reserve,
chronograph and dynamograph; and the Jules Audemars Metropolis Perpetual Calendar
(first to have both a perpetual calendar that displays local time in every 24
key zones).
The flagship line in Audemars Piguet is
the Royal Oak. The first Royal Oak was made in honor of the British Royal
Navy’s HMS Royal Oak battleship. The ship has steel plates and octagon-shaped
gun ports.
These characteristics inspired the
hexagonal screws fastening the bezel on the Royal Oak watch. From then on, all
the Royal Oak collections contain this unique design.
A list of the Royal Oak mens watches:
There is another interesting design to
celebrate the third millennium is called the Millenary. This range has an
unusual case that is of horizontal oval shape but with an original dial to
match. There are a few choices available from day/date, chronograph, time-zones,
and gem-set.
Jaeger-LeCoultre
was the collaboration of the Jacques-David LeCoultre (Antoine LeCoultre’s
grandson) and Parisian chronometer maker, Edward Jaeger in 1903. They have
produced many world class inventions in their timepieces. One of the most
famous created in 1928 was the Atmos which relies its energy from the temperature
variations.
Under its flagship are many patents
established by the company. They invented the Caliber 101 in 1929 which was the
smallest caliber created then consisting of 98 elements and weighs only 0.9
grams. Then in 1956 they launched the world’s first automatic movement
wristwatch equipped with an alarm mechanism, known as Memovox,
Then in 1958, the geophysic chronometer
that comprises of a chronometer antimagnetic at 600 amp/meter meant for
sailors. Its valuable mechanism was proven useful during the expedition by crew
members of The Nautilus.
In 1992, the Master Control 1000 Hours
series was introduced. It was tested up to 1000 hours that was way above the
COSC requirements. Then they also launched the Reverso 101 that incorporates
the Caliber 101 to be the smallest mechanical movement in the world. In year
2000, the company was bought over by Richemont Group who continued their legacy
as well as create masterpieces with a difference.
In 1931, Jaeger-LeCoultre launched the
Reverso collection of watches that was an immediate hit among watch enthusiast.
From then till now, the company has continuously introduced newer collections
of Reverso into the market.
As its name depicts, the watches barrel-shaped
case allows reversible double-face. Some of the latest designs well-noted are
the Reverso Gran'Sport Chronograph
and Reverso Gran'Sport Duo.
The Gran’Sport was first launched in 1998 and required 7 years of research and
development.
The largest case created in the Reverso
ranges are the Reverso Grande Date
and the Reverso Grande Reserve.
The Grande Date contains a large date, an amazing 8-day power reserve, and a
small second counter. For the Grande Reserve, it also has the 8-day autonomy,
small second counter, and a patented jumping power reserve at the reversible
face.
Check out the other Reverso collection
which is the
To commemorate Antoine LeCoultre,
Jaeger-LeCoultre launched a Master Eight Days in 2004 based on the Master
Control mechanism. It comes in 18K pink gold and also 200 pieces of limited
edition with platinum case.
The watch uses a mechanical and manual
winding movement with sub-counters covering from power reserve, small seconds,
and day/night timing. It also has a beautiful LeCoultre signature on the middle
of the case for every of its limited edition pieces.
Check out the other great Master
Collections where all are tested for over 1,000 hours and so engraved with the
“Master Control 1000 Hours”.
There is also another range known as
Master Compressor which is different from the Master Collections above. It does
not have the 1,000 hours testing. This range instead has a 44-45 hours power
reserve within its movement.
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