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There are not too many watches out there with an inspiration coming from historic and political characters and the choice of dedicating a watch to a special man of the past is as romantic as the story of that man. Georg the Bearded, Duke of Saxony, was born in 27 of August 1471 in Meißen and lived a long life as a religious ruler with a strict attitude to morality till his death in 17 of April 1539. This “severity” of his helped him to consolidate Saxony economically and financially. But this stern man had a weak spot – the love for his wife: after she died, Georg grew a beard as a sign of his love and grief that lead after many years to his nickname – the Bearded.
Lang&Heyne decided to honour this man with a special watch – the Georg equipped with a new movement – the Caliber VIII. I had the chance to see this watch at Baselworld and play with it.
The case is very beautiful and well executed: a curved shape with a dimension of 40mm x 32mm and a height of 9.4mm manufactured in platinum, rose gold or white gold. The case is covered with a sapphire crystal on top and an open back, also with sapphire crystal, that reveals the new in-house movement.
This case with 3bars water resistance has 3 sculptural lugs on each side, as a trademark of the brand and an example of beautiful finishes.
The watch sits very good on the wrist due to the curved design and has a distinct look which warms your heart: the shape, the details and finishes are a combination of rigid cut out corners, polished round angled bezel and a lovely crown with logo and satin background – just like the story of an authoritarian man with a good soul.
The enamel dial is absolutely gorgeous: rectangular simple sunk enamel dial, art deco printed Arabic numerals with blue accents and a big and gorgeous “small” seconds sub-dial of almost 15mm diameter. To differentiate the “white metal” cases, the platinum version uses blued steel lancet hands and the white gold variant uses rose gold hands.
The most spectacular aspect of the Georg watch is the Caliber VIII movement, a feast of finishes in steel. The most notable are the bridges with an interesting shape which confers an original look and a great span to the entire movement – on the classical watches, many components are covered, partially or totally, by the bridges, but in this case, the movement’s design lets everything on site, to be studied and admired. The entire Haute Horlogerie finishes deserve a big magnifier and a lot of free time.
The watches have a price that is justified by the design and execution, being highly collectable and a reason of pride and joy for the owner: 33’490Euro for the platinum version, 27’830Euro for the white gold timepieces and 26’410Euro for the model in rose gold.
I would like to thank Dominique Warmer from Lang&Heyne Uhrenmanufaktur for her time and for showing me the watches. Please visit the Lang&Heyene Website for more information.
Please enjoy below some live pictures taken at Baselworld 2017.
