A Full Month of Power on the Wrist – Hands-On with the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 31
For the average automatic or hand-wound watch, a power reserve longer than 3 days is already quite comfortable. Yet, some watches can do more… A week? Easy. Over 10 days? It exists. But what if your watch was able to run for a full month, without the need for you to wind it? Clearly, this would be massive – and it would be the same kind of useless necessity that is offered by a Bugatti Chiron and its 1,500bhp engine… Such a powerful watch exists and is named the A. Lange & Söhne Lange 31. And while it is not a proper novelty, the recently introduced white gold/grey dial version is the occasion for us to look back at this monument, and to all the issues that go along!
Odds are that if you’ve found your way to our website and landed on an article titled ‘How to hide your watch obsession’, then you’re pretty passionate about your watches. After all, they say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. But I’m not here to solve anyone’s problems — I’m here to help you hide them. To the uninitiated, spending what seems like abhorrent amounts of money on watches might seem ridiculous. To make matters worse, it can send the wrong idea. After all, fine mechanical watches are expensive, so lots of expensive things can easily create the perception of lots of money — which probably isn’t what you’re going for (if you are, then stop reading). In fact, I’ve noticed a lot of collectors go out of their way to avoid these sorts of perceptions, especially in their workplaces. It makes negotiating an end of year bonus – or a price rise to your customers – quite a bit more difficult. Just ask Mr ‘Apple Watch’ Turnbull. Let me set the scene. You’re sitting at your desk, quietly tapping away at your keyboard – when a nosy colleague comes over, after noticing something sparkly…
Tudor has just announced Lady Gaga as a brand ambassador and global face of the #Borntodare campaign. This announcement comes just months after the brand signed veteran sports star and style icon David Beckham. In the advertising collateral supplied Gaga wears the (now classic) Heritage Black Bay with red bezel on a red fabric strap. Lady Gaga is an interesting choice for Tudor. Even though her days of meat dress donning, scandal courting behaviour is (for now, anyway) in her past, the outspoken singer is still a much edgier proposition than your typical luxury brand ambassador, which at least lives up to Tudor’s campaign name. What’s also interesting is the choice of watch she’s promoting. Typically, female ambassadors are associated with explicitly feminine collections (think Nicole Kidman and the Omega Ladymatic), but Gaga isn’t wearing pieces from the Style or Glamour lines. No, she’s wearing the original Heritage Black Bay. In a way this is the safest choice for Tudor, as I’m willing to bet it represents the lion’s share of their sales. But it also demonstrates the Black Bay’s versatility, in that it looks as at home with high couture as it does with Gore-Tex outerwear. And if Tudor wants to pitch…