A. Lange & Söhne Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar “Terraluna” Watch

Since its resurrection during the early nineties, A. Lange & Söhne has turned into one of the world's finest and most sophisticated manufactures - a position it fails to lose, no matter how economic crises or ever-changing trends affect the industry. As grandiose as that sounds, Lange has always represented the more relaxed end of the market, remaining consistently "German" with calm and collected novelties, bringing forward the brand and its most famous collections by one small step at a time. But sometimes there is more than one small step that has to be made, and the Richard Lange "Terraluna" tells us that the brand is picking up the pace.

Although Lange had been broadly appreciated among those who managed to delve into the greater depth of fine watch making, in general the brand has likely reached a narrower audience than some of its competitors. Creating highly, or rather, amazingly complicated novelties remain an evergreen solution to this issue, something they start to understand and more frequently implement at the German brand. More recently they have stirred up the standing waters with theLange 1 Handwerkskunst, the Richard Lange Tourbillon “Pour le Merite” and now, with their novelty for 2014, the brand keeps raising the bar. The piece in question is no other than what has to be one of the show-stoppers of this year's SIHH: the all-new Richard Lange Perpetual Calendar Terraluna. Ariel had some hands-on time with this highly complicated piece, built around one of the more "poetic" complications that horology has to offer.