jrwong23 (aka watchthebin)[Purist]
13960
Lange Connoisseur's Akademie Session III in Singapore
Nov 27, 2014,01:23 AM
Last night was the final session of a series of 3 Lange Connoisseur's Akademie (CA) sessions for 2014 in Singapore. I shared session II previously here:
After participants finished all 3 sessions, we will be certified as a Lange Connoisseur and last night we saw many proud graduates of the course. It was hard work indeed - from assembling a balance wheel, to baking a Lange 1 cake, to heating blued hands/spotting dial defects, etc.... lots of work before the certification is given!
Most of us graduated last night, except 4 of us.... me included! Not that we did badly but because we missed session I (or II) and have to do "make-up" classes in 2015 before we can graduate. That's how serious Lange is, no matter how big a collector you are! LOL.
So I can only cover the Prequel (Session I) in 2015 after I attend
For now, here's a report on last night's Lange CA session 3 in Singapore.
The venue was at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, at a pretty new and cosy restaurant called Corner House.
When we arrived, it was raining quite heavily and there is a 3min walk from the carpark to the venue. Typical Lange attention to details was evident - they knew it is the rainy season here and have arranged for buggies (100% sheltered and covered with plastic wraps) to fetch us to the restaurant.
Once we arrived at the venue and had our customary photos taken, it's time to put on the watchmaker's coat! Time to work? Apparently, Lange was nicer to us than that
Cocktail party to warm up first. I always love chatting with Lange collectors. A very discreet bunch who knows what they want in a watch.
The bar at the Corner House was pretty nice and cosy!
After a few drinks, we went upstairs for a presentation by the lovely Joanna Lange. Thankfully, seasoned Lange collectors know not to drink too much before a CA session or we will suffer big time later.... (well I learned my lesson in the last CA anyway). The session focused on the Moonphase complication.
Do you know that a full cycle between 2 moonphase is exactly 29 days, 12 hours, 44 mins and 3 (2.8 to be exact) seconds?
That's 29.5305891 days (I always say 29.5 days for short but Lange wants us to be more precise than that!)
Next, Joanna presented the Richard Lange perpetual calendar Terraluna. We have seen this presentation before but something new (at least to me) was shared last night. Can you see that the back of the watch can be used (roughly) as a worldtime? At a glance, you can estimate the timezone of the various cities on the northern hemisphere (eg Tokyo on the presentation)
After the presentation, we were asked to do some work to earn our CA credits!
There were a few stations, which we all had to try (and succeed!).
The first station I went to was full of lovely dials, including dials of VERY rare Langes.The task was to spot defects as these were defective dials rejected by Lange's QA process. Some were easy like obvious deep scratches. Some were missing a small hour indice. Some were impossible to spot any defect! In general, what I learned was black dials' defects were far easier to spot than MOP or white dials.
Boutique staff Aun didn't give up identifying the dial defects of ALL the dials.... we spotted a few and left her there Lange boutique staff in Singapore are a very curious bunch! Great attitude for learning and growth.
The next station I tried was my favorite for the night. Blueing of screws and hands! If you look at the diagram below, we were asked to heat it till a "Cornflower Blue" color, at 300 degrees celisus. Quite tough as it is at an "inflexion" stage from a Dark blue to a ligher blue. Overheating will make it too light a blue and it won't be able to resist oxidation as well.
My very own blued hand!
See the difference between the blued and non blued hands?
Some blued screws we did
The last station demanded the most patience Winding up the main spring into the barrel. We had to wind up the spring with a device and then fit it into the barrel. Need lots of patience and skills but lots of satisfaction after we succeeded.
Joanna and Ashley from Lange boutique showing us a demo
Finally, a well deserved dinner. The food was really great, far above my expectations. But as usual, it was the company of fellow Lange collectors that made my night. We had lots of fun and laughter and stories to share.
My Lange1 was my companion for the night
Excellent food! Highly recommended restaurant
The 20th anniversary Lange 1s were also presented during the dinner.
This time I spent more time with the platinum versions. I only realized the blue date font on the white dial platiumn version last night. Very special detail.
Which do you prefer? Black or White?
See the blue font on the date window
The star of the night, the Lange One Tourbillon Handwerkskunst (LE 20 pieces in platinum) made for the 20th anniversay of the Lange 1 was also presented. I had read Fx's review of the gala dinner and the launch of this watch and was really looking forward to seeing this watch in the metal.
The black enamel dial blew me away. No bubbles under the loupe with a perfect and deep sheen that looks like a thick coat of black shiny liquid. I couldn't capture this look on photos and I encouarge everyone to see this watch in the metal when you get the chance.
Joanna was sitted beside me during the dinner and she explained that out of 15 dials, only 1 will make it to production with 14 rejected. Black enamel is also more difficult in a sense that imperfections tend to be a lot easier to spot on black enamel than white or lighter colored enamel (think dirt on the black cars - same concept).
Lovely black enamel and black polished tourby bridge on the dial
Photo thru a loupe
Finally, I tried the new WG Langematik Perpetual.The Lange One Tourbillon Handwerkskunst stole the show of course but this WG black dial PC watch is also quite a stunner in its own right.
Towards the end of the dinner, Franck, the MD for Lange Asia Pacific, presented the CA graduands with their Lange Connoisseur plaques. 4 of us (including me) couldn't graduate as we have to do 1 more CA session I make up class. I tried to bargain for the plaque... but Lange is dead serious about the quality of their Lange Connoisseurs. :P
Congrats to all graduates last night! Well deserved.
Thank you Lange Singapore team, Joanna, Michelle and Franck for such a wonderful CA session and dinner last night! It was truly one of my favorite watch events for this year.
Cheers
robin
A group wristie as always!
A little souvenir from the chef before we left for the night
This message has been edited by jrwong23 on 2014-11-27 05:16:21