'Soirée' Mother of Pearl Dial 110.029 A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1

In 2001 The Lange 1 became fit for an evening outing, courtesy of a mother of pearl dial. This is the ‘Soirée’, a slightly more expressive (about as expressive as Germans get) Lange 1 with one big different. The flat white mother of pearl dial debuted in two variants, this 110.029 and a fully integrated Wellendorff ref. 160.029. They are, in a word, a party.

These dials are made from Oyster shells, with an iridescent effect given from reflecting layers inside the material. Lange take a demanding process to make these dials, starting from polishing the exterior to a CNC cut according to dial shape specifications. After that blank is produced, cared motifs, ink, and applying numerals is all up to the individual craftspeople at Lange. You’ll find these white dials and a small run of 25 galvanically blue-dyed Lange 1s for the retailer Dubail (which are wildly desired, ref. 110.049). Even in the white dials, though, you can find this flat or a guilloché dial (under ref. 110.030). There’s also a platinum dark tint MoP under ref. 110.041 that is something worth searching to see.

Interestingly, all of the above MoP variants received their own calibre number, L901.4, because the dial has to be a touch thicker. This means the pinions on the handstack are thicker and the case is about a half mm thicker as well. While it’s a small change in theory, there’s a lot that goes into making it happen. That’s why the Dubail is up and over 100k these days and even the more produced Soirée usually commands in excess of 50k complete and strong. These are the rare expressive side of Glashütte. The few times we’ve seen that exuberance, it’s always a win. Such is the Soirée, sick and schick.

This example shows signs of use, but nothing crazy. There is standard surface wear on the case but strong edges. Hallmarks still deep. It comes from a well-regarded West Coast US retailer.