A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Lumen: A Pre-SIHH Peak

A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Lumen

With Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, or SIHH, coming up in just nine days, many watch brands are keeping all of their cool new toys under wraps until the Swiss show.  Thankfully, A. Lange & Söhne is all about giving us a little taste of what's to come.  And, the 100 piece limited edition platinum A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Lumen is pretty tasty.  

With a gorgeous non-overlapping dial akin to that of the Grand Lange 1, this is a beautiful watch.  The big difference between this and the Grand Lange 1, is this watch has a smoky nearly transparent dial, exposing a great looking movement (think Zeitwerk Luminous). 

In case you're wondering where the "Lumen" comes into play in "Grand Lange 1 Lumen", this watch glows in the dark, and not just in the Superluminova way.  The date mechanism, time and power reserve indices glow as per the usual.  But, it's the "glowing" of the perlage on the date platform that really sets this watch apart. The Grand Lange 1 Lumen's sapphire crystal is treated with a coating to block most of the visible light spectrum but not the invisible Ultra-Violet light spectrum.  UV light can pass though the coating's barrier unhindered.  This allows the date platform's perlage to appear to glow of its own accord.  Cool, huh.

The movement, which is also visible though the A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Lumen's sapphire display back, is the same calibre that powers the Grand Lange 1.  The L095.2 German silver movement is made up of 400 parts and has a 72 hour power reserve.  Not bad for only having a single barrel.

The platinum case is 40.9 mm in diameter and connects to the wearer via a black leather strap.  At a 100 piece limited edition, the A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Lumen is not likely to be cheap, but there isn't any info on price yet.  The Grand Lange 1 Lumen will be officially released during SIHH.  We'll have to wait until then for more info.