701.011, Pour le Mérite Tourbillon, Pink Gold

This is a ref. 701.011 Pour le Mérite Tourbillon in pink gold from 1994, one of just twenty-four made. Amongst the most significant and rare A. Lange & Söhnes ever made, these are the world’s first first fusée and chain wristwatches. Pour le Mérite translates as For Merit, the highest order given from the King of Prussia 1740. In 1994, it demarcated the most special wristwatch A. Lange & Söhne could produce, pushing complication even further than Switzerland had. Today and for all time, the Pour le Mérite Tourbillon ranks as the pinnacle category of vintage A. Lange & Söhne collecting. 

In the very year of this example, 1994, two ambitious men named Günther Blümlein and Walter Lange set out to bring watchmaking back to Glashütte by re-launching A. Lange & Söhne. In order to be taken seriously from the very start, the pair knew they not only had to introduce high complication, but outdo Switzerland. The Pour le Mérite Tourbillon was that watch: a moonshot project with no other purpose than to signal that this little German upstart was to be taken seriously. In fact, Blümlein knew the project would take years of development—and so after the initial dinner which set the re-launch in motion, he phoned his friends at Renaud and Papi with a terribly ambitious idea: to make the world’s first fusée and chain wristwatch, with a tourbillon at the same time. The call for this development was placed two weeks after the Berlin Wall fell. This was the birthplace of the attitude of mechanical innovation which has since carried the brand. 

Development of the calibre was undertaken by the Skunkworks movement engineering house Renaud and Papi. The chain of the fusée and chain mechanism is comprised of 636 individual parts, each .5mm in width. Fully assembled it is .12 grams, but capable of carrying 2 kilograms of tension. Connecting the links was so difficult that a new technique had to be invented: inserting tiny pieces of paper to keep alignment, then burning the paper. This was reportedly the idea of a young Bart & Tim Grönefeld. Additionally, the chain must never be unwound fully in this mechanism. Therefore, the team at R&P developed a blocking mechanism which drops after exactly 36 hours since full wind, stopping the seconds precisely at 0. Additionally, a complex planetary gear arrangement was required in order to keep power flowing from the mainspring while winding. This consists of 38 tiny parts within the fusée cone. In sum, calibre L902.0 comprises 953 components, the most complex and intricate tourbillon movement ever undertaken in the 1990s. 

The design of the tourbillon carousel and dial as a whole were inspired by historic A. Lange & Söhne pocket watches like the 41000 or ‘Jahrhunderttourbillon’ by Fridolin Stübner. The dial aimed to preserve the symmetry these movements set forth with absolute clarity, featuring only a running seconds, power reserve, and tourbillon aperture. This design was penned by Blümlein and Reinhard Meis, then given to R&P. That tourbillon carriage was the first A. Lange & Söhne part to feature multiple razor-sharp interior angles, all executed by hand and flanked by black polish. This achievement was crowned by a functional diamond pivot for the tourbillon carriage. The L902.0 and dial was cased in the traditional 3-body 38.5mm case with contrasting finishing and still just 10mm thin. 

The Pour le Mérite Tourbillon was audacious and defiant in scope, inspiring in execution. As such, it has come to form a pinnacle of Lange collecting—in part due to the rarity (which was from production challenges and not artificial). Across all metals, 200 examples were made. There are 106 in yellow gold (ref. 701.001/751.001), 19 in white gold (701.007), 24 in pink gold (701.011), 50 in platinum (701.005), and 1 in steel. Interestingly, it is only the pink gold examples and just a few piece uniques which feature faceted diamond-shaped indices instead of Arabic numerals (which all other dials feature). 

The Pour le Mérite Tourbillon began the technical side of Glashütte watchmaking in the contemporary era, one which may never be bettered. It is not just one of the initial four models which helped start A. Lange & Söhne, it’s the watch that showed technical ambition where no one had dared prior, almost independent in spirit. The Pour le Mérite Tourbillon, more than any other model, captures the audacious attitude that defined early A. Lange & Söhne.  

This Pour le Mérite Tourbillon presents in exceptional condition overall. The case is unrestored and beautifully preserved, with excellent lug bevels and strong intersections. There is only relatively light surface wear, commensurate of sparing use. Its calibre L902.0 is running well in specification on our timing equipment.

This example is modelled on an average-sized 7-inch wrist.