IN THE SPOTLIGHT

With the Lumen feature developed by the German watchmakers, the Datograph’s nights will be even better than its days. The phosphorescent elements provide a unique light show when darkness falls.

A lumen is a unit of luminous flux used in physics. But for A. Lange & Söhne, it is the name given to models with omnipresent luminous material. It all began in 2010 with the Zeitwerk Luminous. The Grande Lange 1 Lumen in 2013, and then the Grande Lange 1 Moon Phase Lumen in 2016 showed another aspect of the German watchmakers’ talents. Imagination played a role in the collections, becoming the aesthetic counterpart to painstaking technical skill, resulting in a total spectacle. This year, it’s the Datographe Up/Down model’s turn to get this very unusual feature. Day and night, the time information is perfectly visible on the chronograph with a flyback function. Not only is the hour hand and the central second hand illuminated in a deep green colour in the dark, but so are two counters in bicompax position, the large date and the outside of the dial with its minute track and tachymetric scale. The semi-transparent sapphire crystal reveals part of the mechanical architecture of the watch, while capturing UV light to recharge the coloured pigments.

Price: 95,000 EUR

By Dan Diaconu