Accurately reading time for a century to come

It's too early to tell what will happen in 2100, but one thing is certain, the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar from A. Lange & Söhne will still be working. The novelty has two complications, allowing it to show the date, day and month until the year 2100.

"The Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar watch is the flagship of A. Lange & Söhne's 2012 novelties. All the indications of the perpetual calendar of the watch, such as the moon phase, jump instantaneously, enabling it to supply an accurate reading of time," says Wilhelm Schmid, CEO of the company.

Comprising 624 components, the Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar's automatic calibre L082.1 movement has a power reserve of 50 hours when fully wound.

The central element of the winding rotor is in 21ct gold, while the tourbillon cocks and intermediate wheel are engraved by hand.

Housed in a pink gold or platinum 41.9mm case, the timepiece features a crown for setting the time and winding the watch, and push pieces for advancing all calendar indications or separately correcting the moon phase, the day and the month.

It has a hand-stitched crocodile strap in red brown or black.

The chronograph Datograph Up/Down, another novelty, contains the manufacture movement L951.6.

The 451-part calibre is assembled and decorated by hand and has 60 hours of power reserve when fully wound.

Housed in a 41mm platinum case, the Datograph Up/Down comes with an in-house oscillation system powered by a balance spring and has 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour. The watch's dial is adorned with rhodiumed gold baton hour markers.

"Up/Down" refers to the power reserve indicator at 6 o'clock, which tells the wearer how much of the 60-hour power reserve is left.

When asked what has been driving the brand since it was established by Ferdinand A. Lange in 1845, Schmid says simply: "A. Lange & Söhne's vision since the beginning of the brand is to make the world's best watches."

This dedication to being the best in the industry applies mostly to watches for men.

"We create predominantly men's watches, we only have one ladies' watch in our collection. The style of our watches is classic yet contemporary, with sophisticated movements. There is no difference in our target consumers this year or last year or next year; they are people who know about fine watch-making," Schmid says.

Although the brand shares an affinity with connoisseurs around the world, it seems that Asian collectors are those they want to impress the most.

"We opened a boutique in Hong Kong last year at 1881 Heritage and we opened a boutique in Shanghai in late 2010.

"We only have five boutiques worldwide, four of them are in Asia. We believe it is the best way for us to come very close to our collectors, whom we would like to understand much better. Perhaps it is not only about delivering the watch, but we also want to make sure our service is in line with our clients' expectations," Schmid says.