New: Lang & Heyne Friedrich II Remontoir x The Lavish Attic

Finally! Lang & Heine releases the commercial (9 piece limited edition) release of the Friedrich II Remontoir, a collaboration with The Lavish Attic.

Press Release information with commentary in italics.

New: Lang & Heyne Friedrich II Remontoir x The Lavish Attic

The new Lang & Heyne Friedrich II Remontoir x The Lavish Attic is now available for pre-order at a retail price of EUR 59,600 in stainless steel, EUR 63,900 in rose gold, EUR 66,700 in white gold and EUR 74,500 in platinum. Prices exclude VAT.

Commentary

After changing ownership, and Marco Lang leaving the company, Lang & Heyne finally released a new movement in the caliber VI-I. This is an interesting movement development as this is the first time a remontoir has been attempted by the independent watchmaker. The movement is also constructed out of titanium.

A prototype was auctioned off in Hong Kong earlier this year in collaboration with Phillips and The Lavish Attic, and achieved an hammer price of more than USD 110k (about EUR 105k) The no00 was in a stainless steel case with steel Milanese style bracelet. This commercial release is a watch in the same movement, but limited to 9 pieces. Interestingly also, the release price for the SS model as a comparison is less than the price achieved by the auction. We have been keeping an eye out for this release, as the prototype has intrigued us.

See the release information for the many firsts in this new release, including the two part black enamel dial, the first remontoir with small seconds and first ever titanium movement.

The technical skills of a remontoir movement and the specialist techniques for enamel dials are well documented in our pages here, but at first glance, it may seem trivial to construct a movement in titanium, but the material is not only notoriously difficult to machine as it has poor thermal conductivity. And creating a matte finish is particularly challenging, requiring blasting the graining with ceramic beads. The main plate, bridges and balance cock is hand polished with wood and polishing paste. The high resolution photographs of the watch we examined revealed a superbly beautiful movement.

The nice touch to celebrate 9 years of partnership with Hong Kong retailer The Lavish Attic is given a nod with the Arabic numeral 9 for the hour marker in red.

Release information

In May 2022, the Friedrich II Remontoir Prototype “00” is sold for HK$819,000. It is the first time in its history; LANG & HEYNE has developed and manufactured an unique timepiece in collaboration with PHILLIPS and long-term partner THE LAVISH ATTIC.

The year of 2022 celebrates the 9 years of partnership between THE LAVISH ATTIC and LANG & HEYNE. Based on the same Calibre VI-I, limited edition of 9 pieces Friedrich II Remontoir The Lavish Attic Edition is proudly launched and opened for pre-order.

Discover all the FIRSTs of Lang & Heyne in Friedrich II Remontoir The Lavish Attic Edition

1. The first-ever black enamel dial, made in a different way 

The face of the Friedrich II Remontoir is created by a two-part enamel dial. A new state of the art technology gives the possibility to cut massive enamel in slices. Thus, the idea was born to fix two of these discs on a metal support, thus obtaining an enamel dial with a lower small second. Since the highly polished discs cannot be burned again, they are printed with high-quality varnish and the indexes are hand-lined with superluminova. 

The lancet hands indicate the time extremely accurate and are easy to read even by night thanks to their superluminova filling.

2. The first-ever Remontoir found in small second

Underneath the dial a newly developed Remontoir movement, the caliber Cal. VI-I. is responsible for the accurate display of the time. It is equipped with a complicated mechanism to improve accuracy, the Remontoir. This so-called “constant force mechanism” compensates for the decreasing force of the tension spring. Its energy tensions a storage spring every five semi-oscillations, which constantly transmits its power to the escapement. This keeps the amplitude of the balance wheel constant throughout the day, minimizing rate fluctuations. 

The Remontoir of Cal. VI-I is located on the escape wheel and is responsible for the jump of the small second hand every second and fulfills its function at least for 24 hours. 

3. The first-ever movement made of titanium

Through the sapphire glass case back it is obvious, that the main parts of this movement were manufactured of an complete new material – titanium. The use of titanium has presented entirely new challenges to the master watchmakers of LANG & HEYNE. 

Medium-hard titanium of purity grade 2 is used to manufacture the movement plate, gear bridge, lever bridge and balance cock. The chamfers have to be polished very laboriously with wood and polishing paste. The poor behavior under friction also forces a different design for the bearings of all parts. Separate bronze bearings are used for the barrel and winding stem. Line grindings are easily feasible and hand engravings are also possible. Technically, titanium offers greater strength and corrosion resistance.

For aesthetic reasons, the otherwise blue annealed screws were replaced with purple ones to match the warm gray of the titanium.

FriedrichII Remontoir The Lavish Attic Edition Specifications

Case: stainless steel

Caliber: LANG & HEYNE CAL.VI-I

Winding: manual winding

Diameter/Height: 39.2 mm / 10.7 mm 

Water-resistant: up to 3 bar

Function: hour and minute indication, eccentric second, second hand stop mechanism

Dial: two-part black enamel dial, manufactured by using a completely new technology arabic numerals, index 9 and second indexes are in red, rhombi filled with superluminova word “ENAMEL” in the small second

Hands: lancet hands filled with superluminova

Movement

Diameter: 14 ¼ lines (33 mm)

Height: 4.9 mm

Frequency: 18,000 semi-oscillations per hour 

Running time: 24/42 h (Remontoir / follow-on) 

Finesses: second hand stop mechanism, dead-beat small second, 24 rubies, 1 brilliant

Movement: main plate, trigonal bridge, balance cock and lever bridge are made of titanium

Screws: polished and flame purple manually