A. Lange & Söhne is held in high regard by many watch aficionados for many reasons, but one of the Saxon brand’s most admired characteristics is its ability to embrace traditional watchmaking while still being endlessly inventive in its pursuits of modern designs, technologies, and materials. In the new Zeitwerk Honeygold Lumen, announced today on the anniversary of the company’s founding, Lange brings three of its contemporary innovations together in a single timepiece.

The three words of the watch’s name identify each of its talking points. The original Zeitwerk model, famously introduced in 2009, was groundbreaking in its use of a “digital” time display, mechanically driven by three disks with three sets of jumping numerals. This latest model has a case made of Lange’s proprietary Honey Gold, an alloy that is harder than traditional gold alloys and achieves its distinctively warm gloss from a special heat treatment and mineral additives. Introduced in 2010, Honey Gold is used very sparingly by the Saxon manufacture, only on very rare and limited models, most recently in last year’s Homage to F.A. Lange editions. Finally, making the timepiece additionally special is its semi-transparent “Lumen” dial, whose light-permeable treatment allows the numerals on the disk to glow in the dark. Like the Honey Gold alloy, the first Lumen edition (at the time referred to as “Luminous”) debuted in 2010; this ...