Mister X: A. Lange & Söhne “Steel Rarity”

I entered the Pisa store without any specific idea in mind. I just closed an important business, a project I was working on since more than a year, and that costed me too many sleepless nights. I was looking for a watch to celebrate this goal but I didn’t have any particular model in mind. This also happens to stubborn collectors like me… that’s why I asked to speak with Fabio Bertini, director of Pisa at that time. He knew me (and tolerated me) since many years, I was sure he could help me to purchase the watch I didn’t know yet I wanted to buy. Seems a wordplay, but it isn’t: sometimes you need someone to uncover the secrets of an object before falling in love with it.

We started to see together the latest novelties, marine inspired, pilots, classics and sports watches, in steel or precious metals. After more than half an hour, about twenty watches were in front of me, each one with their own characteristics, each one with their own strengths. All amazing timepieces I confess, but none able to make me “fall in love”.

“I will have to go back to Germany without a new watch on my wrist.” I sighed.

“Why in Germany?” asked Mr. Bertini.

“Business. We just made a deal with the Germans.”

“I think I understood what you are looking for…” Smiled Bertini moving away from the desk.

He came back with a watch but he kept it inside his box.

“This is a real treat, a real rarity.” Said, starting to remove all the other watches from the desk. “Almost a year ago I was in Germany, visiting the Lange & Söhne manufacture, amazing technique, amazing history. A maison that have been rebuilt after the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the symbols of the reborn of the Unified Germany…”

My curiosity was growing inside of me. I was spending lot of time in Germany, and I admired the enterprise of that Country. It reminded me of Italy after World War II.

“I was at dinner with Günther Blümlein, the director of Lange, we were discussing materials and I provoked him: why don’t you produce steel timepieces?” said Bertini, closing in a drawer the last of the twenty watches that were on the table before, and the mysterious watch was still in its box.

“Lange & Söhne always wanted to keep a very limited production, and to use precious materials like gold. A Lange & Söhne watch in steel never existed, but Günther Blümlein took up my challenge. They produced sixteen pieces with white dial, all sold out immediately, and only three with black dial…” He said, slowly pulling out the timepiece from its box: “…this is one of those three models with the black dial.”

It has been love at first glance, it was exactly what I was looking for: Lange & Söhne caliber with 72 hours power reserve, big date, minutes, seconds, hours, minutes, seconds, and of course, steel case.

A discreet but priceless timepiece because of the use of that material, precious only because “unique” in the Lange & Söhne production process. Basically the “Holy Grail” for a watch collector.

“A German watch to celebrate a German business.” Said Bertini smiling, sure of the fact that I would buy watch.

The Lange & Söhne in steel is until today the crown jewel of my collection.