LANG & HEYNE Friedrich II Remontoir Prototype 00 - Unique piece

Reading Time: 3 minutes

LANG & HEYNE stands for perfect craftsmanship – honest handmade watches of the highest quality, created in exclusive small series. For the very first time in its history, LANG & HEYNE has developed and manufactured a unique timepiece in collaboration with PHILLIPS and long-term partner THE LAVISH ATTIC. The FRIEDRICH II – Remontoir “Prototype 00” movement has challenged the master watchmakers of LANG & HEYNE in many ways. The traditional skills of crafting a movement including the remontoir complication have had to be rethought to achieve the given high standards LANG & HEYNE stands for.

The dial

The face of the FRIEDRICH II Remontoir is created by a two-part enamel dial. A new state of the art technology gives the option 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 in addition with a small second at six o´clock. Since the highly polished discs can´t be burned again, they are printed with high-quality varnish. The indexes are hand-lined with Superluminova.

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

The movement

The newly developed remontoir movement, LANG & HEYNE Cal. VI-I, is responsible for the accurate display of the time. Through the sapphire glass case back it is obvious, that the main parts of the movement were manufactured in titanium. We worked with this material for the very first time as this is actually used for cases and not for calibers.

Titanium has given entirely new challenges to the master watchmakers of LANG & HEYNE. In order to meet the very high demands on the quality of the technology but also in aesthetics. We had to adapt and modify traditional skills and processes.

Medium-hard titanium of purity grade 2 is used to manufacture the movement plate, gear bridge, lever bridge and balance cock. To create a matte sheen, the graining is achieved by blasting with ceramic beads which, unlike glass beads, do not shatter when they hit the material. For brass frame parts, the polished chamfers are then pressed on with the smoothing steel. This is not possible with titanium. It has unfavorable friction behavior, which would cause the spinning tool to leave cracks. So here 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 that were previously supported in the brass of the plate. Thus, separate bronze bearings are used for the barrel and winding stem. All other assembly steps can be performed in the same way as with conventional plates, line grindings are easily feasible and hand engravings are also possible. Thus, the balance cock also retains its beautiful classic design. Technically, titanium offers greater strength and corrosion resistance, making it an interesting asset to the movement.

For aesthetic reasons, the blue annealed screws were replaced with purple ones to match the warm gray of the titanium. Still, as you might know in LANG & HEYNE, all screws are produced and finished in-house.

The remontoir

This model FRIEDRICH II Remontoir 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.

The case and bracelet

The FRIEDRICH II Remontoir “Prototype 00” comes with a case made of stainless steel.

The Milanese bracelet is manufactured in stainless steel as well with links which were designed to connect to the steel case perfectly. This bracelet is designed exclusively for the FRIEDRICH II Remontoir. The connection to the butterfly clasp is made by narrow links, which are screwed and can thus be removed individually to correct the strap length.