Zeitwerk "Generation 1"

Launched in 2009, the Zeitwerk immediately imposed itself as a a benchmark in contemporary watchmaking with digital hours and minutes displayed horizontally across the dial. The crisp, instantaneous snaps for the minute and hour changes (when the second hand crosses 60) are immensely satisfying and only possible because of the typically 'Lange & Söhne' approach to watchmaking. Instead of repurposing an existing movement, or designing a dial around a ready-to-go calibre, Lange designed from the dial downwards. Like the Datograph before it, the innovative and technically challenging movement took 5 years of development and had to serve the layout created by the designers. Maintaining the house DNA for such a radical watch is tough, but the Zeitwerk oozes the brands inimitable approach at every level. From the German silver plates, detailed black polished steel, imposing case band and in-house numerals for the time. Complete with its original Lange box and certificate, this 2017 model is in superb condition, and sports the black dial most famously associated with the iconoclastic beast.