The Breitling Watch Source Forums

There has been a lot of talk about movements of late, so I thought I would bring this watch to your attention.

The watch itself is typical A Lange & Sohne:



But that's not what makes this watch special.

It is (I think) just the third wristwatch ever to contain a chain and fusee movement, and that's what I wanted to point out.

Many of you know that one of the problems with mechanical movements is that they tend to run faster when the mainspring is fully wound and slower when the mainspring is almost fully unwound - it's logical when you think about it.

This is a much more significant time impact than the positioning issue and yet all of the work goes into tourbillons that do nothing for this problem. That's in part because tourbillons look cool, and partly because chain and fusee is extremely difficult to do.

In a regular watch the mainspring transmits power directly to the gear train, in a chain and fusee movement the mainspring barrel and the geartrain are connected via a chain - in the Lange & Sohne it has over 600 parts.

In addition to the chain there are two 'blocks' that address the two extremes - fully wound and fully unwound to prevent the excessive torque changes at the fully wound and fully unwound states. Finally the chain has a pretensioner which adds or decreases tension at the mainspring and allows for adjustment of each individual movement to balance the chain and the spring.

Does it make a practical difference to the everyday wearer - not in the slightest, but its an amazing piece of technology, will doubtless have an amazing price, and results in a movement for a watch that has over 900 parts.

It's also pretty damn cool!

Im a big fan of A. Lange & Sohne, especially their movements. The only problem is they are waayyy out of my price range.

Is there a picture of this movement?

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Here's the gear train, spring barrel and chain



And here is most of the rest of it.



The plate and ratchet wheel for the pretensioner are missing as they would hide the rest of the mechanism.

Wow, that would be a cool chain for me to have... it's a big contrast to my motorcycle chains.

Remarkable piece of engineering they have there.

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Nice find.

A fantastic technical achievement! But you know, that chain
looks kind of fragile. I wonder what its lifespan would be?

Steve

Thanks Roff, I have appreciated all of the different watches you have posted in this section lately. This particular A. Lange & Sohne is a incredible watch. I can only hope to aspire to include something like this in my collection in the future. The more I learn and discover about my love of horology I am learning it is all about the movements. This particular A. Lange & Sohne is quite the achievement.

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- Nathan
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Breitling Avenger Skyland (Black)

That one caught my eye as well, but as soon as I saw the price I knew it was not within reach anytime soon. I absolutely love the dial, and the movement is amazing!

Thanks for those pics of the movement Roff, never saw one in person.

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Certified watch nut.